Caverns in Florida: Underground Wonders in Northwest Florida

There is evidence Native Americans once used these cool Florida caves to escape the heat. Seventy years ago, the Civilian Conservation Corps created a space for us to enjoy.

Florida Park Ranger Amanda Glover swings open a heavy metal door and strides into underground passages that stretch deep beneath a slice of northwest Florida. For several years she has led tours into these natural Florida wonders where only sound is the distant trickle of water.

Near the entrance of the cavern that is the centerpiece of Florida Caverns State Park Glover aims her flashlight at a bat small enough to fit into the palm of a hand. The black mammal clings to the ceiling of the cavern where for four years beginning in 1938 a team of Civilian Conservation Corps workers toiled for $1 a day to expand a crawl area into space ample enough for visitors to transcend.

The cavern floor is etched with evidence of the young men's work – ridges that make trekking less treacherous. Overhead several of the workmen's white dinner plates remain cemented to the cavern's ceiling where they were placed to enhance the light from bare bulbs. More than 200 CCC workers who once labored at the park and a handful were appointed to the Gopher Gang that was assigned to crawl underground to map the cave design walkways and string electrical lights.

With chisels and picks they labored through the limestone creating passageways some narrow some low but sufficient to allow visitors into a space that would become Florida's only underground caverns open for tours.

Located about 60 miles west of Tallahassee in Marianna the site opened to the public in 1942 five years after being discovered by Oliver Chalifoux a National Park Services geologist who crawled through a sinkhole beneath a fallen tree.

Sinking 55 feet with an average temperature of 65 degrees, these caverns in Florida are dissected with a series of rooms named for the limestone formations that jut from the floor and dangle from overhead.

The Wedding Room which several couples annually choose for their nuptials is accented by water-shaped sculptures that look like a giant wedding cake and large pipe organ.  

Throughout the cavity columns look like trees in a forest rippled formations appear to be draperies and a rimstone pool forms the shape of  South America. The formations are delicate and not to be touched lest thousands of years of nature's handiwork be destroyed.

Tours into these Florida caverns include several admonitions: no handrails no touching no backpacks no walking sticks no infant back carriers.

But also a comforting yes: There is an escape route for those who decide they are uncomfortable inside the earth where walkways slope ceilings can become low and bats and scampering mice make their homes.

The caverns are a major draw to the 1 340-acre park which also includes a hardwood forest that is pocked with swamp and riven by natural springs.

There are a host of reasons to visit. Some are drawn to the large campsites; others favor the places to canoe and kayak (with equipment rentals available) with the sounds of birdlife creating a soft symphony along waterways. For horse lovers the equestrian camp sites have electrical and/or water hook-ups tent sites with water and 16 stalls for horses. (Take your own horse; none are available for rent.) Others head to the park to fish boat bicycle and golf on a course carved out by WPA workers.

Several trails – ranging from .16 to 3.08 miles in length – lace their way through the park and bypass other Florida caverns whose entrances have been blocked. Evidence within the park and in some of the smaller Florida caves hints of Native Americans who lived nearby and occasionally used the caverns for shelter and respite from scorching temperatures.

Picnic areas and several picnic pavilions are scattered throughout the park that has a small playground gift shop and a museum that focuses on the park and caverns.

If You Go

Located at 3345 Caverns Road in Marianna Florida Caverns State Park is open from 8 a.m. until sunset. Park admission is $5 per vehicle ($4 for single-occupant vehicle). Available on a first-come basis 45-minute cave tours are offered daily except on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cost for cave tours is $8 per adult $5 for ages three to 12 and free to children under two.

For information call 850-482-1228.