Literally and figuratively the cave was the first underworld hideout of the criminal. In the year 1765 a man who went by the name of Gill Belcher migrated from Hebron, Connecticut, to the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and there set up as a silversmith. It is possible that he traveled up through Connecticut by way of Enfield, for later there was associated with him, in an enterprise which caused no small stir about southern New England and eastern New York State, a young man called William Hulburt or Hubbard, son of an estimable Enfield man, Obadiah Hubbard.
At any rate, Gill Belcher, a family man, who eight years later stated that he had "nine small children, the eldest twelve, and an aged mother" of whom he was an only son, made his appearance in June in the pretty little Housatonic River town in the Berkshire Hills and soon bought an interesting piece of property. It was a bit of a rocky hill, rising about 250 feet above the highway, later know as Knox Trail, where it joins the present U.S. Highway No. 7 at the northwestern edge of the town. This property had been owned by an eccentric gentleman, a veteran of the French Wars and prominent in military and civic affairs, William King, Jr., a major in the Revolutionary War. By its humorous owner, the property was called "Bung Hill" at the time he sold it to Belcher. On the side of the solid stone eminence was a cave, "halfway up a steep, jagged declivity on the north face of Bung Hill" which was a bold, unevenly rounded knob of rocks covered in part with a scanty growth of trees and with massive blocks of stone strewn along its base.
There seemed nothing strange about this purchase of land, because at the northern base of the hill, on a little level of land, was a small house where Belcher settled himself and family and proceeded to engage in his trade as a workman in silver and gold. Doubtless Mr. King considered himself well rid of the rocky hill which was sometimes haunted by rattlesnakes, sunning themselves and by various wild animals.
The cave itself is an immense opening in the hillside, evidently formed by some ancient convulsion of nature, one of those geological "faults" which form grottoes in the hard rock, in some localities. The portal yawns high and wide but the passage soon narrows and a heap of fallen rocks in fragments forms a barrier rising waist high, beyond which is a chamber about thirty feet long and eight to ten feet wide. This is roofed by one solid sheet or block of stone more than fifty feet long which forms also the eastern wall, like an attic room with the peak of the roof ten to fifteen feet about the floor, but at the side, bearing down to nothing.
Across the top of the outer entrance is a spearlike blade of stone which, in some lights and at some angles, resembles a huge scimitar or sabre; and in others a rude replica of an elephant's trunk.
The inner room is dimly lighted through an opening about midway of its length near the top and also by a smaller aperature - this latter seeming to have served a great many times as a chimney, for the blackened walls about it testify to fire.
That there had been many a fire there in the time of Gill Belcher, and for a nefarious purpose, was established several years after he had taken up his abode at Bung Hill. He sold the property in 1768 but is believed to have carried on his trade of silver-smithing at the house for some time afterward. At any rate, when he was committed to jail for counterfeiting on October 30, 1772, it is a matter of record that he was taken while he and others were in the cave, engaged in manufacturing counterfeits in imitation of "York money"; that is, coins and currency bearing the official imprint and accepted as standard in the Province of New York - and in the provinces of New England also.
(trial details left out for brevity, if anyone is that interested, e-mail me and I will include it)
....Oh, yes, the cave is still there and accessible to anyone who can climb a little - and isn't afraid of rattlesnakes which once haunted the vicinity in numbers, and seem to still be represented by a few stagglers. However, children play about the lofty caverns and eagerly guide adult inquirers to its location on old Bung Hill, and but one or two rattlers have been seen near there for years, and they were not in the cave, but in the weeds and grass at the bottom of the hill.
A few years ago, John L. E. Pell, historian and dramatist, after a study of the customs and costumes of the period, with the aid of John W. Taylor, an expert photographer, staged a reproduction of the counterfeiters' activities in the cave, and the raid by the King's Militia, even manufacturing a replica of the quaint, hand-operated press with which the false banknotes and coins were made.
In the north end of the village, where a spur of the mountains comes to an abrupt end, a cave is formed by the disruption and falling together of rocks. It is known as belcher's Cave, because tradition says that a man named Belcher counterfeited silver coin there before the Revolution. The place is often made the object of easy, summer day's walks by those who want to see what the rough hand of Nature has done, and to get the refreshing coolness imparted to the air by rocks and shade.
At Bung Hill was another small cluster of dwellings, one of which - the old L house on the corner - is standing at the present day. This was the residence of Captain George King, one of the early sheriffs of the county, who afterward died in the service at Ticonderoga. It is in this vicinity that the notorious Gill Belcher lived, and while apparently working at this trade as a tinker, he was in reality, as tradition has it, engaged in counterfeiting silver coin. On the mountain side, just south of the corner, is a cavern, knows as "Belcher's Cave," where the counterfeiter is said to have been discovered at his illegitimate work. Whether the tradition be true or false in this respect, in the weather book of Lieutenant Gamiliel Whiting are found the following entries:
"1772, July 2d, Gil Belcher com't'd" (committed). "1772, Aug. 3d, Belcher released." "1772, Oct. 30, Gill Belcher, D. Lewis, J. Adams, and J. Caul com. for counterfeiting." "1772, Oct. 31. Money makers went to N. Canaan."
It is possible that Belcher and his confederates were a part of a line of counterfeiters extending at that time from Connecticut through Berkshire into New York. Belcher was probably taken to New Canaan for trial, and was afterward confined in the Albany jail, where it is recorded that he was executed.
"Great Barrington - One of the more quaintly named geological appendages in South County is Bung Hill, a 25-foot-high wart of the face of the town's otherwise quietly rambling landscape.
Major William King, an eccentric fellow who lived at the foot of the hill (at the junction of Routes 7 and 23) gave it its name two centuries ago because of its resemblance to a keg bung, or stopper.
In 1785, Major King sold Bung Hill and adjacent land to Connecticut goldsmith Gill Belcher, a gentleman who was to lend a great deal of notoriety to that section of town.
Mr. Belcher quickly discovered a cave on Bung Hill and put it to novel use. The gash in the hill's rocky northeastern face has a broad opening marked by a spearlike blade of stone overhanging. A low passage leads to a 30-foot lean-to cavern which Mr. Belcher and his confederates are said to have utilized for counterfeiting activities.
Details of Mr. Belcher's endeavors are not abundant. Great Barrington's historian Charles J. Taylor dismissed Belcher's Cave as a myth when his history was published in 1882. But upon investigation, he wrote an article which was printed in the The Berkshire Courier's June 17, 1891, number in which he said that "Gill Belcher made this cave his workshop and hiding place whilst engaged in the manufacture of counterfeit coin; that his retreat was betrayed by the smoke of his fire issuing from the crevices of the rocks; that he was arrested and executed for his crimes.
Mr. Taylor said that Mr. Belcher maintained a low profile in town, though local records showed that he was briefly a guest at the local lockup in August, 1772, that charge not stated. Two months later, he and three other men were arrested and taken to Albany for prosecution as counterfeiters.
James Parrish, a member of the town's Historical Commission, said Mr. Belcher likely was making copper shillings, hot-dipping them in silver then stamping them between dies in his shop. The cave, he suspects, was used only to hide the dies.
Mr. Taylor said, and Gill Belcher's own confession bears it out, that he was also making paper "York" money, which was passed in New York State.
At any rate, Mr. Belcher and 11 other men were tried and convicted on counterfeiting charges in December, 1772. Three of them were sentenced to hang: John Wall Lovely, Dr. Joseph Bill and Gill Belcher.