With winter clearly underway, outdoors opportunities (unless you're a skier) tend to shrink, but through the month of January, Organ Cave in Greenbrier County will be offering something that's completely outdoors, but also very much inside.
By reservation on Saturdays, the popular natural attraction will be offering candlelight tours, which the owners of the cave say will make the experience like going back to 1899.
The Gazette-Mail spoke with Janie Morgan, whose family has owned the cave since the 1990s, about what to expect and why someone would want to go down into the earth in the middle of winter.
Q: Why do this?
A: "I wanted to do something different and thought it would be good. Everybody is finished with Christmas and going into tax time. People get depressed because of the weather, and I thought something like a candlelight tour would spark them. So, we're offering this through January - by reservation on the weekends. Everything is by reservation until the first of April."
Q: What's it like?
A: "You can't see as much. The candlelight gives it a different feel. It certainly does make you appreciate the present day more. Think of the women back in the 1800s with those lace-up, high-heeled boots and long skirts. It would have been hard enough to walk in the cave with adequate lighting.
"It's just like stepping back in history. From 1822 to 1914, all tours of the cave were done by candlelight. Every third person got a candle and they charged them 10 cents each."
Q: How do you know that?
A: "It's part of the history of the cave. There's a lot of history to the cave. They did the candlelight tours along with the stagecoach tours that traveled from the Greenbrier to White Sulphur Springs to South Sulphur Springs back in the 1800s.
"Robert E. Lee and his family even came and visited. It's why he knew so much about the cave before the Civil War."
Q: How is the cave lit normally?
A: "The cave has been wired for electricity since 1914. That's when it got electricity. The interesting thing is the other homes in the area didn't have electricity until 1948. I guess everyone was used to using candles in their home."
Q: Is it spooky? A cave by candlelight sounds spooky.
A: "The cave is not spooky. I guess it depends on what you listen to or watch - all the drama that's on television or if you read spooky stories and stuff like that. I've always found it fascinating."
Reach Bill Lynch at lynch@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5195 or follow @LostHwys on Twitter.