Clay Perry has written about many extraordinary caves in New England and the mystery of Elsie Venner cave somewhere on the highest mountain in Pittsfield was our destination on Saturday. Led by Jim Moore, we followed an old cart path up the mountain taking us back in time to mystery and folklore where the author Holmes takes us to a mysterious cave.  Inspired by Holmes’s friendship with his summer neighbor in Pittsfield,  the poet Sarah Morewood, whose mansion closely resembles the description of the house where Elsie lived, Elsie Venner was Holmes’s first novel, originally published in 1859.  This cave was Elsie’s secret hangout… Elsie was a mysterious character as her mother was bitten by a snake here while pregnant with her and died leading to her supposed snake taming abilities, Elsie chose this as her secret hiding place.  Although we didn’t see Elsie, we did see many large spiders and a dead vulture making this place a creepy one!

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