Knights at the Bookshelf

By Sir Knight George L. Marshall, Jr., PGC, KGC

Jason Williams, M.D., Brought to Light: The Mysterious George Washington Masonic Cave, Westphalia Press, 2021, Softbound, 587 pages, ISBN: 978-1-637-72371-20.

This is a very large book and is not one that can be read quickly. Moreover, the title of the book somewhat belies its contents. It purports to be a discussion of the so-called “George Washington Masonic Cave” located near Charles Town, West Virginia, but relatively little of the material presented deals with any Masonic aspects of the cave. Instead, the lion’s share of the book is devoted to people and events associated with Charles Town, the Colonial Era, the Revolutionary War, and Washington and his kin.

Indeed, much of the “evidence” that the cave was ever visited by Washington is based on a signature “G Washington 1748” supposedly inscribed with a pen knife by him when he was sixteen and accompanying a small surveying party. Even this may have been forged by someone at a later date, as the author eventually points out. The cave walls contain other graffiti and drawings, some of which may be (perhaps fancifully) construed as Masonic symbols.

To this reviewer, there is not enough evidence presented that George Washington ever visited this particular cave or that it was ever used for Masonic purposes. There is some circumstantial or hypothetical “evidence” but nothing conclusive or beyond question. The author, to his credit, does not attempt to persuade the reader, but rather presents what is known and what might be inferred from certain circumstances, leaving the reader to draw his own conclu-

30 june 2022