Descending Into Florida’s Underwater Caves

Long before theme parks began sprouting from Orlando’s swamps, Florida’s freshwater springs were among the area’s main attractions.

Indigenous Americans made use of the springs for thousands of years before Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 1500s. The conquistadors’ reports of clear water gushing from cavernous holes in forest floors fueled myths about the existence of the Fountain of Youth.

A few hundred years later, when sulfur springs were believed to have therapeutic properties, White Sulphur Springs, on the banks of the Suwannee River, became one of Florida’s first commercial tourist attractions. By the early 1900s, the debut of glass-bottomed boats gave tourists a fish’s-eye view of Florida’s springs, and the pristine underwater landscapes attracted early filmmakers. Dozens of movies and television shows were filmed underwater at Silver Springs, a group of springs in Marion County, alone, including “Sea Hunt” and “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.”

Florida has the densest collection of freshwater springs on the planet. Every day, the state’s more than 1,000 freshwater springs collectively discharge billions of gallons of groundwater to the surface. Springs provide critical habitat for aquatic animals, including the iconic Florida manatee, and anchor Florida’s inland water-based recreation industry. Visitors from around the world come to Florida’s springs to fish, kayak, tube, swim and scuba dive through the miles of underwater caves that connect springs to the aquifer and pipe water to the surface. Springs tourism injects cash into rural economies across the state.