Cudmore Joins Cave House Museum Board of Trustees

HOWES CAVE, NY—Retired communications professional Dana Cudmore of Cobleskill has joined the board of trustees of the Cave House Museum of Mining and Geology, announced the board’s director, Paul Griggs.

Cudmore will provide public relations and fundraising expertise to guide the Cave House Museum’s eleven-member board in developing its educational mission.

Cudmore has worked as a newspaper and magazine writer, editor, and a public relations professional for the SUNY system. After running his own agency, Media Services, he worked as an external affairs officer for a federal disaster response and recovery agency before retiring.

A long-time Schoharie County resident, Cudmore has written extensively on Howe Caverns, the historic cement and stone quarrying industry of the Howes Cave area, and upstate New York’s “cave country.” In his teens, he worked summers at the famous cave as a tour guide from 1971 through 1976, developing a lifelong interest in the cave’s mysteries and remarkable history, as well as interest in the other caves in upstate New York and beyond. With friends, he explored the other local caves, as well as caves in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, the Virginias, Tennessee, and Missouri.

Cudmore’s most recent book, “Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Discovery, Exploration and Adventure in NY’s Cave Country,” was published by Black Dome Press of Catskill in August 2021. The book is available at the Cave House Museum Shop, local bookstores, Barnes & Noble and online.

As a nonprofit, NYS-chartered educational institution, the Cave House Museum of Mining and Geology promotes an understanding of the importance local and regional geology and mining plays in our lives.