Postcard showing the “Entrance to Judgment Hall of Pluto” located in North Woodstock, New Hampshire. The postcard dates to the late 1920s and was one of several collected by Bretha Opdahl, who worked from 1926 to 1929 as a kitchen maid for John and Frances Glessner, both at their Chicago home and their summer estate, The Rocks, near Littleton, New Hampshire.
The Judgment Hall of Pluto is a spectacular cave formed by massive granite boulders, situated in the Lost River Gorge. The deep cave contains the “Falls of Proserpine,” a beautiful 20-foot underground waterfall. The name of the site comes from Roman and Greek mythology, where Pluto, seated on his ebony throne beside his queen Proserpina, would watch as the souls of the deceased were judged to determine their eternal fate.
The Lost River, so named for its meandering path which often disappears beneath boulders, was first explored in the 1850s by two young boys on a fishing trip, who soon discovered numerous caves along its path. By the early 1900s, the beauty of the area was threatened by logging, and in 1912 it was acquired by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forest (the Forest Society), of which John Glessner was an early member. The Glessner family donated The Rocks summer estate to the Society in 1978, and both properties remain under the care of the Forest Society to this day.