{"id":6581,"date":"2025-10-16T13:55:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6581\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T13:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:55:06","slug":"exposed-florida-aquifer-exposes-florida-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/6581\/","title":{"rendered":"Exposed Florida aquifer exposes Florida history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WILLISTON, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Welcome to <a href=\"https:\/\/devilsden.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Devil\u2019s Den<\/a> in Williston, Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s less of a den and more of what\u2019s called a karst- an exposed spring filled with 72 degree water.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Devil&#8217;s Den spring exposed betwee 115,000 and 126,000 years ago<br \/>\n<br \/>\u00a0Animal bones on spring floor helped date collapse&#8211; mastadons, saber-tooth cats and giant Jefferson sloths<br \/>\n<br \/>\u00a0Once a local swimming hole, now open for snorkeling and scuba training with 50,000 visitors a year &#8212; from around the world<br \/>\n<br \/>Wet suits, snorkel gear available for rent; weekedays are less busy<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything you see and here at one time was soft limerock and it took millions of years to erode away, and eventually sometime between 115 and 126,000 years ago, the roof caved in and exposed the Florida aquifer,\u201d said Don Standridge, one of the Den\u2019s caretakers.<\/p>\n<p>The animals fell in and could not escape.<\/p>\n<p>Their fossils helped date when the top rocks collapsed, exposing the spring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMastodons, saber tooth cats, giant Jefferson ground sloth,\u201d Standridge said. \u201cThey took that off the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But for Standridge, Devil\u2019s Den was just a local swimming hole.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>\u201cAnd would have a blast. We were able to jump from the top. None of this was here\u2014no ladder, stairs,\u201d said Standridge.<\/p>\n<p>A tight stairwell to the spring is a newer edition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we would actually build fires over on that ledge, and you\u2019d swim till you got cold and you\u2019d get up by the fire and warm up and then go swimming again,\u201d said Standridge.<\/p>\n<p>Beneath that ledge, about 50 feet down, is the spring, sending up 72-degree water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt comes through nice and slow and goes right back into the aquifer,\u201d said Standridge.<\/p>\n<p>The spring draws an international crowd of about 50,000 people every year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe advent of social media getting the word out about this place is insane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Standridge added that the Devil\u2019s Den owner will not develop the land, nor sell bottled spring water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a conservationist. He wanted people to be able to see it and enjoy it,\u201d said Standridge.<\/p>\n<p>And in 2026, they are creating a museum for the finds from this prehistoric spring to add to the experience at Devil\u2019s Den.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILLISTON, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Welcome to Devil\u2019s Den in Williston, Florida.\u00a0 It\u2019s less of a den and more of what\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7147,7150,7152,28,30,29,7151,115,4094,7149,139,135,7148,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-6581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-app-chefs-kitchen","9":"tag-app-florida-on-a-tankful","10":"tag-chefs-kitchen","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-florida-on-a-tankful","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-on-the-town","17":"tag-on-the-town-app","18":"tag-orlando","19":"tag-tampa","20":"tag-virginia-johnson","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}