Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park

Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park
Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Location	Wakulla County, Florida, United States
Nearest city	Tallahassee
Coordinates	30°13′58″N 84°17′32″W / 30.23278°N 84.29222°W
Area	6,000 acres(24 km2)
Governing body	Florida Department of Environmental Protection
U.S. National Natural Landmark
Designated	October 1966

Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park is a Florida State Park in Wakulla County, Florida, United States. This 6,000 acre (24 km²) wildlife sanctuary, located south of Tallahassee, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and designated a National Natural Landmark.^[1]

Summer divers and swimmers at Wakulla Springs.

History

The park draws its name from Edward Ball, the DuPont family financial manager who sold the park lands to the state of Florida. He built the lodge in 1937. His trust posthumously sold the tract to the state in 1986.^[1]

Paleo Indians are known to have camped at the spring 12,000 years ago, where they hunted mastodons, bison, and other ancient animals. The bottom of the spring bowl is littered with bones of mastodons, giant sloths, giant armadillos, and camels. Glass bottom boat tours no longer operate due to a decrease in water clarity, but standard boat tours of the spring and river operate all year.

Fifty-four archaeological sites have been identified in the park. Excavation of part of the Wakulla Springs Lodge site (8WA329) found successive strata of artifacts from 20th century, Seminole, Fort Walton culture, Weeden Island culture, Norwood culture, Archaic, and Paleoindian occupations.^[2]

Features

The park has three nature trail systems which lead the visitor through pine forests, bald cypress wetlands and hardwood hammock. Hikers, bicyclists and horse riders are welcome. The wildlife found in the forest includes white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and many other bird species, while American alligators, bass, gar, various snakes, and West Indian manatee (during the winter) populate the springs, swamps, and river.

It contains Wakulla Springs, one of the world's largest and deepest first-order freshwater springs and an exit point of the Floridan Aquifer. Wakulla Springs' highest outflow has been measured at 860,000 U.S. gallons per minute (54 m³/s). The spring's average flow is about 400,000 US gallons per minute (25 m³/s). The opening of the spring is 180 feet (55 m) down, through which cave divers, especially those of the Woodville Karst Plain Project have explored many miles of its underwater tunnels. The spring gives rise to Wakulla River which flows several miles to the south where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Sally Ward Spring and Cherokee Sink are located within the Park, while Leon Sinks Geological Area is nearby and part of the same karst system.

The Park contains the Wakulla Springs Lodge, which functions as a hotel.

Recreational activities

The park has such amenities as birding, boat tours (water contamination makes glass-bottomed boat tours now rare^[3]), cabins, hiking, horse trails, picnicking areas, snorkeling, swimming, and wildlife viewing. An interpretive exhibit and concessions are also available

Notes

^ ^a ^b Kleinberg, Eliot (December 19, 2021). "Florida history: State park near Tallahassee is an archaeological – and a modern – marvel". TC Palm. Retrieved December 19, 2021.
^ Jones; Tesar: 100, 109
^ "Sadly, Glass-Bottom Boat Tours over the spring basin have become the exception rather than the rule in recent years. Tea-stained or green water impedes the penetration of light needed to view the impressive features of the deep chasm of Wakulla Spring", https://www.floridastateparks.org/park-activities/wakulla-springs#Boat-Tours Archived March 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved May 20, 2015.

References

Jones, B. Calvin; Louis D. Tesar (June–September 2000). "The Wakulla Springs Lodge Site (8WA329): A Preliminary Report on a Stratified Paleoindian Through Archaic Site, Wakulla County, Florida". The Florida Anthropologist. 53 (2–3): 98–114. Retrieved January 29, 2013.

External links

Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park at Florida State Parks

[Kleinberg_TCPalm-1] Kleinberg, Eliot (December 19, 2021). "Florida history: State park near Tallahassee is an archaeological – and a modern – marvel". TC Palm. Retrieved December 19, 2021.

[2] Jones; Tesar: 100, 109

[3] "Sadly, Glass-Bottom Boat Tours over the spring basin have become the exception rather than the rule in recent years. Tea-stained or green water impedes the penetration of light needed to view the impressive features of the deep chasm of Wakulla Spring", https://www.floridastateparks.org/park-activities/wakulla-springs#Boat-Tours Archived March 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved May 20, 2015.

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v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Florida
Lists by county	Alachua Baker Bay Bradford Brevard Broward Calhoun Charlotte Citrus Clay Collier Columbia DeSoto Dixie Duval Escambia Flagler Franklin Gadsden Gilchrist Glades Gulf Hamilton Hardee Hendry Hernando Highlands Hillsborough Holmes Indian River Jackson Jefferson Lake Lee Leon Levy Liberty Madison Manatee Marion Martin Miami-Dade Monroe Nassau Okaloosa Okeechobee Orange Osceola Palm Beach Pasco Pinellas Polk Putnam Santa Rosa Sarasota Seminole St. Johns St. Lucie Sumter Suwannee Taylor Union Volusia Wakulla Walton Washington
Lists by city	Miami Tampa
Other lists	Black Public Schools Bridges Multiple Property Submissions National Historic Landmarks Woman's clubhouses
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

v t e Indigenous peoples of Pre-Columbian Florida
Periods Paleoindians Archaic period Post-Archaic period
Archaeological cultures	Alachua Belle Glade Cades Pond Caloosahatchee Clovis Deptford Fort Walton Glades Leon-Jefferson Manasota Mount Taylor Norwood Orange period Paleo-Indians Pensacola Safety Harbor Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Suwannee Valley Swift Creek Weeden Island McKeithen North peninsular Gulf coast
Archaeological sites	Apalachee Bay Aqui Esta Burial Mound Bay Pines Bear Lake Mounds Big Heart West Big Mound City Big Mound Key-Boggess Ridge Bird Hammock Blueberry Bowers Bluff Middens Bubba Midden Burns Lake Butcherpen Mound Cayo Pelau Cayson Mound and Village C. J. Ostl Crystal River Cutler Demere Key Devil's Den Cave Dismal Key Douglass Beach Fort Center Fort Walton Mound Galt Island Garden Patch Green Mound Halfway Creek Helen Blazes Hickory Ridge Cemetery Hinson Mounds Horr's Island Indian Fields J&J Hunt Josslyn Island Jungle Prada Key Marco Kimball Island Midden Lake Jackson Mounds Lake Pithlachocco Letchworth-Love Mounds Little Salt Spring Madira Bickel Mound Mark Pardo Shellworks Miami Circle Mill Cove Monroe Lake Mound Key Mount Elizabeth Mount Royal Mount Taylor Mullet Key Myakkahatchee Creek Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Nocoroco Ormond Mound Ortona Prehistoric Village Otis Hare Page-Ladson Persimmon Mound Pierce Pineland Platt Island Plaza Pompano Beach Mound Portavant Mound Porter's Bar Princess Mound River Styx Roberts Island Rock Mound Rookery Mound Ross Hammock Safety Harbor Shark River Slough Shell Bluff Landing Spruce Creek Third Gulf Breeze Thomas Creek Turner River Turtle Mound Twin Mounds Upper Tampa Bay Useppa Island Velda Mound Waddells Mill Pond Wakulla Springs Yent Mound Yon Mound and Village
Human remains	Manasota Key Offshore Melbourne Man Vero man Warm Mineral Springs Windover
Miscellaneous	Beaver Lake point Indigenous peoples of the Everglades region Protection of Native American sites in Florida Shell ring List of shell ring sites#Florida Shell works Simpson point Suwannee point
Related Pre-Columbian era