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Inspiring business stories from the Heart of Berks County
Jim didn't set out to become the president of Crystal Cave. The family called, and he said yes. He's been showing up for 28 years. The cave was here long before him. It will be here long after. His job, the way he tells it, is simply to make sure it's worth the trip.
"Pay attention to your customers. Welcome them. Make them feel like they're the most important thing while they're here—because they are."
A 5/8-mile trail through planted evergreen woods—a quiet counterpart to the cave below.
150-plus years of Crystal Cave history under one roof, including the original 1891 Opera Bus stagecoach.
Dutch specialties, indoor and outdoor seating, open through the summer season.
Hand-dipped cones and sundaes. The traditional ending to a day at Crystal Cave.
A shaded, cave-themed course using historic relics as obstacles.
Thousands of specimens from around the world: geodes, amethyst, onyx, quartz.
Purchase a bag of dirt, rinse it through the sluice and keep whatever you find.
An educational film on cave geology and Crystal Cave's 150-year history, shown before every tour.
A guided descent 125 feet underground through formations that have been growing for millions of years.
The formations inside Crystal Cave are still growing. Stalactites extend roughly a cubic inch every hundred years—so slowly that no visitor will ever notice the change between one trip and the next. The cave doesn't hurry. It has no need to. A day at Crystal Cave moves at a different pace than the one most people show up in. Slower. More present. Less optimized. The cave asks you to look up. The trail asks you to walk it. The afternoon fills you with appreciation: a gemstone turned over in a kid's palm, a friendly rivalry over mini golf, a scoop of ice cream that hits the spot on a 90-degree summer day. These are the kinds of hours that stay with people. Crystal Cave has been making a sanctuary for them since 1872, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
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Interested in learning more about a GRCA membership and a chance to be featured in an upcoming feature story?
Want to explore additional Growth & Transformation Stories from Reading, PA.? Visit the GRCA's dedicated webpage.
The people who visit bring their own layers of meaning to the place. A recent guest book captured visitors from 47 of the 50 states and 40 countries—not necessarily because people are flying in from across the world specifically to see the cave, but because Crystal Cave is a place you just have to see when you're visiting family in Berks County. Or passing through on a road trip with friends. Or planning a field trip for 150 kids that you want them to love and remember.
Every summer, a new crop of high school students starts their first real job at Crystal Cave. They sell tickets, guide tours, run the panning sluice, scoop ice cream. Some will work a season and move on. Others will stay through the end of college.
While they absolutely learn (sometimes painfully) how to explain stalactite formation to distracted 8-year-olds, they also learn about dealing with people. The patient ones and impatient ones, the visitors who came from two states away and are surprised the cave isn't bigger, and the families who just need someone to point them in the right direction. "I think they learn to deal with a little bit of adversity," Jim says. "In today's society, that's a big thing."
The cave itself requires daily maintenance that teaches consistency and attention to detail. Staff walk the path every morning to clear puddles that collect from dripping formations and tend to lighting that doesn't always cooperate with the humidity. Every winter, Jim shows up with a power washer. Volunteers from caving organizations come with toothbrushes, keeping formations clean in a labor of love that visitors rarely think about as they look up in awe.
"We really take a high priority of keeping the formations clean," Jim says. "Ours is really pretty inside."
Cave Teaches
None of it is flashy. That's part of the point.
Crystal Cave has never been in the business of overstimulating anyone. The cave itself has little Wi-Fi signal, no screens, no algorithms—just beautiful, otherworldly formations, holding a constant 54-degree temperature and a deep sense of quiet.
Most people come for the cave, but end up leaving with many more activities under their belts than originally planned.
Generations of owners have steadily transformed 150 acres surrounding Crystal Cave into a little oasis of hands-on fun. Each addition followed a simple logic: if families are making the trip, give them a reason to stay. Today that means an 18-hole miniature golf course winding through shaded groves, gemstone panning at a sluice where kids walk away with actual gems (and, Jim notes, their parents usually want a bag too), a rock and mineral shop, a theater that opens every tour with a film on cave geology and history, a museum housing 150 years of artifacts including the original 1891 stagecoach and an ice cream parlor that does steady business on warm afternoons.
"Depending on what time of year you come, you can spend a whole day here," Jim explains.
That's the idea. Not a rushed hour underground and back to the highway—a day with your family where the to-do list can wait. Gemstone panning is absorbing and tactile. Mini golf has a little friendly competition in it. The nature trail moves through more than 300,000 evergreen trees planted over the years. The ice cream is hand-dipped.
A Cave
Samuel Kohler bought the Crystal Cave property in 1872. He promptly built a wooden door to keep trespassers out, and then spent four months preparing for a public opening he dubbed the "Grand Illumination.” On May 25 of that year, Crystal Cave became the first show cave in Pennsylvania. Curious visitors flocked from near and far; some by foot, others by horse and still others by carriage. Kohler built an inn for his guests, serving warm dinners by candlelight for those who’d travelled too far to return the same day. His son David took over in 1886 and held dances in what they called the Crystal Cave Ballroom.
In 1922, the cave was passed to two new investors: J. Douglas Kaufman and attorney Edwin L. DeLong. The DeLong name is still connected to Crystal Cave today. Jim DeLong has served as president for 5 years and counting, and the previous 23 years as manager—the first family member to actually work at the site full time. The others, he mentions with a grin… just owned it.
Throughout the decades, life unfolded against this idyllic backdrop nestled in the rolling countryside of Berks County. In 1919, a couple said their vows underground beside a natural formation draped in flowers while someone played Bridal Chorus (yes, a piano had been carried into the cave for the occasion). In 1949, four generations of a family gathered 125 feet below the surface for a baptism; the baby's grandfather had been a tour guide at Crystal Cave since 1907.
In recent decades, the cave has been re-wired, re-lit and renovated. Proposals still happen. School groups still file through in matching t-shirts. Families still pull into the lot on a summer Saturday looking for somewhere safe and wholesome to spend the day. The stagecoach that once met tourists at the train station now sits in a little museum. Attractions have grown up around the entrance: miniature golf, gemstone panning, an ice cream parlor and a nature trail winding through evergreen woods.
What hasn't changed is what people come looking for. No matter how times change, people tend to crave something real; something that asks nothing of them except to pay attention to the little details that make life magical.
Two farmers were blasting for limestone in 1871 when they accidentally blew a hole in the side of a hill and found something no one expected. What they discovered has been captivating the public ever since. For decades, Crystal Cave has witnessed first dates and marriage proposals, school field trips and baptisms—all held 125 feet below the surface of the earth. And while the world above it has changed in almost every conceivable way over the past 150 years, what lies beneath the surface at Crystal Cave remains a safe haven for experiences that never will.
Inspiring business stories from the Heart of Berks County
Jim didn't set out to become the president of Crystal Cave. The family called, and he said yes. He's been showing up for 28 years. The cave was here long before him. It will be here long after. His job, the way he tells it, is simply to make sure it's worth the trip.
"Pay attention to your customers. Welcome them. Make them feel like they're the most important thing while they're here—because they are."
A 5/8-mile trail through planted evergreen woods—a quiet counterpart to the cave below.
150-plus years of Crystal Cave history under one roof, including the original 1891 Opera Bus stagecoach.
Dutch specialties, indoor and outdoor seating, open through the summer season.
Hand-dipped cones and sundaes. The traditional ending to a day at Crystal Cave.
A shaded, cave-themed course using historic relics as obstacles.
Thousands of specimens from around the world: geodes, amethyst, onyx, quartz.
Purchase a bag of dirt, rinse it through the sluice and keep whatever you find.
An educational film on cave geology and Crystal Cave's 150-year history, shown before every tour.
A guided descent 125 feet underground through formations that have been growing for millions of years.
Interested in learning more about a GRCA membership and a chance to be featured in an upcoming feature story?
Want to explore additional Growth & Transformation Stories from Reading, PA.? Visit the GRCA's dedicated webpage.
Explore Bell Media Group's Marketing Magic in Berks County.
a
The formations inside Crystal Cave are still growing. Stalactites extend roughly a cubic inch every hundred years—so slowly that no visitor will ever notice the change between one trip and the next. The cave doesn't hurry. It has no need to. A day at Crystal Cave moves at a different pace than the one most people show up in. Slower. More present. Less optimized. The cave asks you to look up. The trail asks you to walk it. The afternoon fills you with appreciation: a gemstone turned over in a kid's palm, a friendly rivalry over mini golf, a scoop of ice cream that hits the spot on a 90-degree summer day. These are the kinds of hours that stay with people. Crystal Cave has been making a sanctuary for them since 1872, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
The people who visit bring their own layers of meaning to the place. A recent guest book captured visitors from 47 of the 50 states and 40 countries—not necessarily because people are flying in from across the world specifically to see the cave, but because Crystal Cave is a place you just have to see when you're visiting family in Berks County. Or passing through on a road trip with friends. Or planning a field trip for 150 kids that you want them to love and remember.
Every summer, a new crop of high school students starts their first real job at Crystal Cave. They sell tickets, guide tours, run the panning sluice, scoop ice cream. Some will work a season and move on. Others will stay through the end of college.
While they absolutely learn (sometimes painfully) how to explain stalactite formation to distracted 8-year-olds, they also learn about dealing with people. The patient ones and impatient ones, the visitors who came from two states away and are surprised the cave isn't bigger, and the families who just need someone to point them in the right direction. "I think they learn to deal with a little bit of adversity," Jim says. "In today's society, that's a big thing."
The cave itself requires daily maintenance that teaches consistency and attention to detail. Staff walk the path every morning to clear puddles that collect from dripping formations and tend to lighting that doesn't always cooperate with the humidity. Every winter, Jim shows up with a power washer. Volunteers from caving organizations come with toothbrushes, keeping formations clean in a labor of love that visitors rarely think about as they look up in awe.
"We really take a high priority of keeping the formations clean," Jim says. "Ours is really pretty inside."
Cave Teaches
None of it is flashy. That's part of the point.
Crystal Cave has never been in the business of overstimulating anyone. The cave itself has little Wi-Fi signal, no screens, no algorithms—just beautiful, otherworldly formations, holding a constant 54-degree temperature and a deep sense of quiet.
Most people come for the cave, but end up leaving with many more activities under their belts than originally planned.
Generations of owners have steadily transformed 150 acres surrounding Crystal Cave into a little oasis of hands-on fun. Each addition followed a simple logic: if families are making the trip, give them a reason to stay. Today that means an 18-hole miniature golf course winding through shaded groves, gemstone panning at a sluice where kids walk away with actual gems (and, Jim notes, their parents usually want a bag too), a rock and mineral shop, a theater that opens every tour with a film on cave geology and history, a museum housing 150 years of artifacts including the original 1891 stagecoach and an ice cream parlor that does steady business on warm afternoons.
"Depending on what time of year you come, you can spend a whole day here," Jim explains.
That's the idea. Not a rushed hour underground and back to the highway—a day with your family where the to-do list can wait. Gemstone panning is absorbing and tactile. Mini golf has a little friendly competition in it. The nature trail moves through more than 300,000 evergreen trees planted over the years. The ice cream is hand-dipped.
A Cave
Stagecoach Transportation
Since traveling all the way to Crystal Cave by coach was time consuming, Samuel Kohler purchased a new horse-drawn stagecoach and met tourists at the local train stations to transport them the few miles to the cave. His son, David Kohler, would also assist with the stagecoach duties as well as drivers from livery stables in Kutztown.
Samuel Kohler bought the Crystal Cave property in 1872. He promptly built a wooden door to keep trespassers out, and then spent four months preparing for a public opening he dubbed the "Grand Illumination.” On May 25 of that year, Crystal Cave became the first show cave in Pennsylvania. Curious visitors flocked from near and far; some by foot, others by horse and still others by carriage. Kohler built an inn for his guests, serving warm dinners by candlelight for those who’d travelled too far to return the same day. His son David took over in 1886 and held dances in what they called the Crystal Cave Ballroom.
In 1922, the cave was passed to two new investors: J. Douglas Kaufman and attorney Edwin L. DeLong. The DeLong name is still connected to Crystal Cave today. Jim DeLong has served as president for 5 years and counting, and the previous 23 years as manager—the first family member to actually work at the site full time. The others, he mentions with a grin… just owned it.
Throughout the decades, life unfolded against this idyllic backdrop nestled in the rolling countryside of Berks County. In 1919, a couple said their vows underground beside a natural formation draped in flowers while someone played Bridal Chorus (yes, a piano had been carried into the cave for the occasion). In 1949, four generations of a family gathered 125 feet below the surface for a baptism; the baby's grandfather had been a tour guide at Crystal Cave since 1907.
In recent decades, the cave has been re-wired, re-lit and renovated. Proposals still happen. School groups still file through in matching t-shirts. Families still pull into the lot on a summer Saturday looking for somewhere safe and wholesome to spend the day. The stagecoach that once met tourists at the train station now sits in a little museum. Attractions have grown up around the entrance: miniature golf, gemstone panning, an ice cream parlor and a nature trail winding through evergreen woods.
What hasn't changed is what people come looking for. No matter how times change, people tend to crave something real; something that asks nothing of them except to pay attention to the little details that make life magical.
Two farmers were blasting for limestone in 1871 when they accidentally blew a hole in the side of a hill and found something no one expected. What they discovered has been captivating the public ever since. For decades, Crystal Cave has witnessed first dates and marriage proposals, school field trips and baptisms—all held 125 feet below the surface of the earth. And while the world above it has changed in almost every conceivable way over the past 150 years, what lies beneath the surface at Crystal Cave remains a safe haven for experiences that never will.
