Perryville

The area around this cave was the site of Perryville’s original settlement, Harbison’s Station. Named for its founder, James Harbison, the station was settled in the 1770s. Harbison and the group of Virginians traveling with him chose this location because the cave housed a natural spring and was situated on the banks of the Chaplin River (to your left rear behind the buildings). A fort was built around the cave for protection, and Harbison’s Station soon became a center of pioneer life in what became western Boyle County.

Trouble frequently arose with local Native Americans, and the settlers would flee into the fort and cave to seek shelter. If necessary, both men and women would help defend the fort against attackers. During one raid James Harbison failed to reach the cave in time and was captured and executed. His head was discovered about a mile from the fort. A Perryville resident later recalled that Harbison’s wife “took the head and managed to keep it in a complete state of preservation for many years.”

As more people moved west, Harbison’s Station grew into a small town, which was renamed and incorporated as Perryville in 1817. The cave remained a popular site for social events. Stone walls were installed around the mouth in the middle of the 19th Century to prevent erosion, and were reconstructed in 2007 by the Perryville Enhancement Project.

Please use caution walking around the cave mouth.

“The cave…was where most of the Perryvillians obtained their drinking water. The stream was much larger then than it is now.”

—Perryville resident Lora Parks, from a memoir

Marker is at the intersection of West Fourth Street and South Buell Street (U.S. 68), on the left when traveling west on West Fourth Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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