The Legend of Penn's Cave

The Legend of Penn's Cave, as told by Isaac Steele, an aged Seneca Indian, in 1892. , In the early eighteenth century, long before settlements reached west of Sudbury, PA, a young Frenchman from Lancaster County, Malachi Boyer, set out to explore the wilderness. He roamed into the forests peopled by redskins, with whom he was friendly. , One beautiful April, Malachi was camped at Mammoth Spring, near the Indian camp of Chief O-Ka-Cho, on the shores of Spring Creek near Bellafonte. He made friends with the old chief and sent him small gifts as tokens of friendship. O-Ko-Cho has seven sons and one beautiful daughter, Nita-nee, whom the sons guarded carefully all the time. One day Malachi caught sight of Nita-nee washing a dearskin in the stream and immediately fell in love with her. Since the Indians would not permit their marriage, they decided to run away, and late one night, they departed for the eastern settlements. They were later captured by the seven brothers and were returned to Chief O-Ko-Cho. , O-Ko-Cho commanded his sons to tkae Malachi into a yawning cavern filled with water and thrust him in. Every day for a week he swam back and forth searching vainly for an entrance other than the large one guarded by the merciless Indians. Then exhausted by his efforts and vowing that the Indians should not see him die, he crawled into one of the furthermost recesses of the cavern and breathed his last. The brothers did not touch the body except to weigh it with stones and drop it into the deepest water of the cavern. , After these many years, those who have heard the legend declare that on still summer nights an unaccountable echo still rings through the cavern which sounds like "Nita-nee - Nita-nee". oday, in Central Pennsylvania, we honor the beautiful Indian maiden Nita-nee, by bestowing her name on Nittany Mountain and Nittany Valley, as well as our World Famous Nittany Lion, located at the Penn State University Campus.