There are many secret places across America. Robber’s Cave, in Lincoln, Nebraska, is one of them. Once a sacred spot for the indigenous Pawnee people, the cavern also served as a stop for runaway enslaved people on the Underground Railroad. The cave received its colorful name from the time that Jesse James’ outlaw gang used it as a hideout in the 1800s. Many say the cave is haunted by Native American spirits. Some think that Jesse James’ vengeful ghost roams the sandy cavern. Others claim to hear voices and drums echoing through the grotto. Today, it’s impossible to visit Robber’s Cave. A Subway shop sits on top of and seals the entrance to the ancient site.
The History
In prehistoric times, the cave later known as Robber’s Cave was a shallow natural formation carved from brown Dakota sandstone at Pahuk Bluff. The Pawnee tribe made pilgrimages to the sacred site to contact a deity called Tirawa. According to Pawnee oral history, Tirawa is the creator of all things. Native pictograph carvings still mark the golden rock walls. In the 18th-century, the Osage tribe used the place as a hunting ground, while the French explored the cave while scouting in the Pahuk Bluffs. According to unconfirmed reports, enslaved people sheltered in the cave on their way north to freedom. Some say that Civil War deserters escaping the war in the east hid from hometown retribution here. In 1869, Pioneers Brewery, the first brewing company established in Nebraska, dug into the sandstone walls to expand it into a 5,000-square-foot cavern. By the 1870s, the cave obtained its reputation as a gang hideout for Old West outlaws such as the James Gang, the Dalton Gang, the Youngers, the Rufus Buck Gang, and Belle Starr.
The Haunting
Before the cave closed, it remained a popular tourist spot for ghost hunters and spooky buffs. It gained its colorful reputation from Pawnee mythology, runaway slaves, deserters, criminals, and patients from a nearby mental institution whose spirits are supposedly lost in the tunnels. If you stand still and listen, visitors say that you can hear distant Native American chants under the roll of deerskin drums. Voices, shrieks, screams, and wild laughter echo off the walls. According to people who have been down in the cave, there is a bricked-up passage in one of the rooms. Although it might lead to a collapsed tunnel, there are rumors of ghosts moaning, trapped, behind the wall. It’s said that the brewery that used to sit atop the cave during the Old West’s heyday had a den of thieves’ atmosphere. According to local folklore, after Nebraska built the state mental asylum and the state penitentiary less than a mile away from Jesse James’ hideout, vagabonds, outlaws, and lost people escaped into the cave tunnels, leaving their voices imprinted on the walls.
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