Dolgeville Cave Tragedy Drew National Headlines

It was a cold February day in 1965 when a 23-year old Massachusetts chemist and two friends drove to Dolgeville to explore Schroeder's Cave.  James Mitchell, Hedy Miller and Charles Bennett would crawl through the challenging cave encountering sections named "Lemon Squeeze," Z-Bend," and "Gunbarrel."   The trio would then reach a shaft that looked down on a large cavern some 80 feet below.

When Mitchell hooked on his safety line and started down the shaft, something went wrong.  His fellow cavers said that he could not wiggle himself lower.  With ice water pouring on his head, Mitchell attempted to pull himself back up the rope but his hands kept slipping.  After failed attempts to pull the young man from the shaft, his colleagues went for help.

The Dolgeville and Little Falls Fire Department's rescue teams had no success, and the National Grotto Rescue Squad was flown in from Washington, D.C.  That's when the story made headlines and was covered by the 3 major TV networks.

When the recue team was unable to haul Mitchell's then lifeless body out of the shaft, they tried drilling a new entrance to reach him.  It was at that point when part of the roof collapsed, and the rescuers had to abandon the cave.  Six days after the rescue attempt began, the entrance was dynamited so that no others would have the same fate.

James Mitchell's body would remain in Schroeder's Cave for the next 41 years.  A headstone was placed near the entrance as a memorial.

However, in 2006, one of the rescue team members returned to the Dolgeville cave in an attempt to rescue Mitchells remains. He told USA Today that a new opening to the cave had been discovered, and the current owner of the property wanted the caver to have a proper burial.  It took six workers about four hours to recover the bones of James Mitchell from the bottom of the 80-foot shaft.