Devil's Den

Devil's Den Prehistoric Spring

Useful Information

Location:	5390 NE 180th Ave., Williston, Florida 32696. Located northwest of Orlando near Williston. I75 from South exit at Ocala, follow Hwy 27 west, through Williston. I75 from North exit at Gaionsville, follow Hwy 121 south to Williston, turn right on Hwy 27. After 1.4 km turn right on NE 180 Ave. (29.4074933, -82.4764325)
Open:	All year Mon-Thu 9-18, Fri-Sun 8-18, last entry at 16:30. Night dives available. [2024]
Fee:	Snorkeling: Mon-Thu USD 18, Fri-Sun, Hol USD 25. Dive Fees: Adults USD 38. Night Dive: OCT to FEB USD 25, MAR to SEP USD 35. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave River Cave Doline Cenote
Light:	n/a
Dimension:	T=22 °C.
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	Barbara A. Purdy, Kathryn M. Rohlwing, Bruce J. MacFadden (2015): Devil's Den, Florida: Rare Earth Element Analysis Indicates Contemporaneity of Humans and Latest Pleistocene Fauna PaleoAmerica. 1 (3): 266–275. ISSN 2055-5563. DOI pdf R. A. Martin, S. D. Webb (1974): Late Pleistocene mammals from the Devil's Den Fauna, Levy County Pleistocene Mammals of Florida, 114-145. J. A. Holman (1978) The late Pleistocene herpetofauna of Devil's Den Sinkhole, Levy County, Florida Herpetolagica 34 2, 228-237. B. Pruitt (1991): Devil’s Den Levy County, Florida Florida Speleologist 27(2), 2, 1991.
Address:	Devil's Den, 5390 NE 180th Ave., Williston, Florida 32696, Tel: +1-352-528-3344, Fax: +1-352-528-2400. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1960	explored and excavated by John M. Goggin and others.
1991	opened to the public as a scuba diving site.

Description

Devil's Den aka Devil's Den Prehistoric Spring is a cenote or collapse doline, not a spring. It is a hole in the ground with a lake at the bottom, there is no water flowing out and no creek or run. The short cave with a sump at the end is commercially used for cave diving. A couple of entrepreneurial divers, Mike and Anna Lovas, bought the land around the cave in 1990 or 1991. They widened the cave entrance and built a path to the sump, which is located in a huge limestone chamber with a wide hole in the ceiling, dripping with green vines. They also constructed a diving platform with a wooden staircase into the water and opened it as diving site. But they sold it again after only three years to a group of investors. This was positive for the site as the investors actually invested further money to create a comprehensive scuba training and recreational diving park.

The spring is now open to all divers with open-water diver certification. Obviously, cave diving is not "open water" diving, but the owners argue that the divers have direct access to the surface, not confined like a true cave. Devil's Den is a popular training spot for scuba instructors from throughout the country. It is a perfect place to taste the forbidden fruit of cave diving, without the danger of a cave.

Scuba diving is possible without reservation all day, there is no time limit except open hours. It is necessary to sign a waiver, bring a diving licence for open water and a diving partner. They also offer so-called Night Dives, which are actually in the evening, after sunset. They require a reservation and a group of 10. And there is the possibility to snorkel, which does not require a certification, but it is by reservation only, each time slot is 90 minutes long. In other words, it's not possible to visit the cave and spring without getting wet.

This cave is an underwater cave system which is part of the aquifer below Florida. The main chamber has collapsed and has now a huge opening in the ceiling which is generally called a karstfenster or karst window. The water has a temperature which is 22 °C all year, which is actually the average temperature of this area. This is a typical thing for any karst, but for some reason in Florida the temperature is attributed to geothermal heating, which is nonsense. However, during winter the outside temperatures are much lower and the warm humid air which came out of the hole produced a constant fog. This is the simple explanation why the site was named Devil's Den, the water vapor aka fog suggested that it was a chimney from the fires of hell. Again, this is quite common for any karst area, cavers often discover caves by searching for such holes with fog during winter. And the fact that the strange fog was attributed to the devil is again quite common, we have listed three Devil's Dens for the U.S.A.

The cave was originally accessible from a nearby solutional doline, by climbing through a crack. The chamber forms a lake with a diameter of 30 m and a water depth of 15 m. The water dissolves the limestone and further widened the chamber below the water level. It is described as an "inverted mushroom", as it has a diameter of up to 61 m underwater. The water level in the aquifer changes depending on inflow and outflow, it changes naturally depending on how high the precipitation actually is, it changes with climate change as well as with locals pumping water for various purposes. For several decades since the mid-20th century, the water level of the aquifer has fallen. This was a result of an increasing number of wells pumping groundwater to the surface. Around 2018 it has risen again and has flooded the main platform, which was built above water level in the 1990s.

The cave actually has side passages, but divers are not allowed to enter them, for one this would require the cave diving certificate, but also to protect the cave. There are four water-filled passages of different lengths and depths. The most spectacular is called Chamber 3, it is 21 m below the water table and was filled with palaeontological remains. During excavations, the bones of mastodons, ground sloths, camels, horses, dire wolves, bog lemmings, Florida spectacled bears, saber-toothed cats, and peccaries were found. A partial mastodon skeleton is on display at the Smithsonian, and a giant sloth is on display at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Also, human remains and artifacts were found. The now extinct Pleistocene animals obviously entered the cave by themselves, the opening with its vertical walls was a deadly trap, probably some bones were flushed in by a flood. But the cave was also visited between 13,000 and 9,500 BP by humans, who left remains in the cave. Its unclear if they also fell into the cave and died here of if they actually visited the cave, and the remains were probably burials. At this time, the sea level was much lower and the now flooded chamber was dry. Both numbers are the result of isotope dating, which is normally rather accurate, but there are sometimes wrong results. However, the last ice age ended about 12,000 years BP, the glaciers melted, and the sea level, which was 100 m lower than today, started to rise. At some point, probably 9,500 years ago, the water level reached Chamber 3 and flooded the sediments. In other words, this date most likely marks the end of human visitation.

This is finally the reason why this site is lately called Devil's Den Prehistoric Spring. The site is of great importance because of the big number of human skeletal remains. Five individuals were recovered in the early 1960s together with eight genera of extinct, latest-Pleistocene fauna. But soon there was no more funding, and both excavations and the work on the retrieved bones ended. After some publications in the 1970s, there was no further scientific work on the topic done. Even some already written papers were not published and are lost now. Researchers from the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History did some dating in 2015 using Rare Earth Element (REE) relative dating on bones from the 1960 excavation. This work is the basis of the above dates.