Seneca Caverns Closed – WV Losing Famous Tourist Attraction

http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200802130828

Seneca Caverns closure was business decision, owner says
Seneca Caverns has been shut down because “the business plan was not working,” a lawyer for the corporation that owns the site told The Charleston Gazette in an e-mail Wednesday.

Seneca Caverns has been shut down because “the business plan was not working,” a lawyer for the corporation that owns the site told The Charleston Gazette in an e-mail Wednesday.

Greer Industries, West Virginia’s largest limestone producer, owns Seneca Caverns and operates a limestone quarry near the caves. Its CEO is Morgantown businessman and former Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Raese.

State and local tourism officials said Tuesday they had recently learned that Greer had closed West Virginia’s largest caverns to the public, but they hadn’t been able to find out why. Seneca Caverns had employed people to give the guided cave tours, as well as to work in the on-site gift shop and restaurant.

Greer Industries receptionists referred phone calls from the Gazette Tuesday to the corporation’s legal department, which did not return the call Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, company lawyer J. Robert Gwynne replied in an e-mail that Greer “does not have any future plans to mine through the caverns or in and around the area in which the caverns are located.”