Area less than one acre Nearest city Wilmington | NRHP Reference # 78000910 Added to NRHP 1 September 1978 | |
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The Beaver Valley Rock Shelter Site is the only documented cave in the US state of Delaware. It is located in New Castle County near Wilmington and the state line with Pennsylvania.
Up until the mid-twentieth century and despite ample historical evidence that Delaware Indians used it for shelter, The National Speleological Society maintained that Delaware was the only state in the union lacking a cave. In 1958, a local resident, George Jackson, added this cave to the national cave files. The cave was the focus of research in the 1940s when the Archeological Society of Delaware conducted a dig which revealed conclusively that Indians had used it for shelter and storage. Sitting just 100 feet from the Pennsylvania border this small cave extends just 56 feet to its furthest reach, but has become one of the most researched caves in the United States relative to its size. Jack Speece notes that the cave has gone by many names in its history. Indian Cave, Beaver Valley Rock Shelter, and Wolf Rock Cave preceded the now more commonly accepted "Beaver Valley Cave."
The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.