36 - 20 Million BCE The limestone bedrock, in the Wakulla Springs area, forms at the bottom of a warm, shallow ocean. The organic sources of the limestone carbonates are mostly animals which use carbonate minerals to build their hard skeletal body parts. Over millions of years, the carbonate skeletal body parts settle to the ocean floor forming the limestone.

20 - 1 Million BCE For extended periods of time, the sea level is lower than the bedrock. This expose the limestone, in the Wakulla Springs area, to fresh water erosion, forming the caves, sinkholes and springs (karst) that we see today.

120 thousand BCE The sea level is higher (with the shore reaching into Georgia) and Wakulla Springs is at the bottom of a bay in the Gulf of Mexico. This is similar to the Spring Creek Springs of today, which are just off shore in the Gulf of Mexico.

14,000 - 10,000 BCE The sea levels are much lower than today and the shoreline south of here extends 400 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, the ancestors of the Apalache live along the streams and sinkholes. Wakulla Springs is a karst window similar to the current Cherokee Sink. Mastodons and other large animals are hunted here where the climate is milder and very dry.

10,000 - 3,000 BCE At the end of the last ice age the earth's temperature and its oceans rose to their current levels and the Wakulla karst window once again is a spring with a river flowing to the Gulf of Mexico. The population, we call Apalache, farms the fertile areas and live between the Aucilla and Ochlockonee rivers. A small village named Aute is located on the Wakulla River a short distance from the spring.

1528 - 1763 (First Spanish Period) A few decades after Columbus landed in the Caribbean in 1492, about 50,000 Apalachee live in Florida's Big Bend area. When the first Spanish conquistadors arrive in the 16th century, they find large Apalache Settlements in the Tallahassee area.

1528 Panfilo de Narvaez and his Spanish explorers arrive on horses and foot seeking gold. The expedition's treasurer, Cabeza de Vacca, survives to write about the voyage that ended tragically for Narvaez. The first Europeans to explore the Wakulla Springs area arrive at an Apalachee hamlet known as Aute in 1528. It would be several years before other Spanish conquistadors follow Narvaez's trail through the swamps from Tampa Bay.

1704 A Spanish fort (San Marcos de Apalachee) built at the confluence of the Wakulla and St. Marks rivers is no match for English and Yamassee raiders who advance from the Carolinas to destroy Spanish Catholic missions. Timucuan and Apalachee peoples who are not killed during these raids either depart with the Spanish for Cuba or are taken as slaves to the Carolinas leaving the Wakulla Springs area virtually depopulated.

1763 - 1783 (British Period) One British planter settles his slaves as an absentee owner along the Wakulla River to continue growing corn on former Apalachee lands. At the end of the American Revolutionary War, Florida is handed back to Spain.

1783 - 1819 (Second Spanish Period) Creek and Seminole Indians seek refuge along the Wakulla River, escaping increasingly hostile settlers in the new United States Mississippi territories (today's Alabama and southwest Georgia). U.S. Gen. Andrew Jackson invades Spanish Florida and chases British sympathizers to the fort at St. Marks where two are tried and killed. Seminole and Creek Indians also fear for their lives when Spain sells Florida to the United States in 1819 for $20 million. Jackson executes Creek Chief Hillis Hadjo (Francis the Prophet) at St. Marks April 18, 1818. His daughter, Milly Francis, leaves their Wakulla River settlement (Francis Town) for Oklahoma after pleading with her father to spare the life of an American soldier, Duncan McKimmon, which he does. Much later, in 1844, Milly Francis receives a Congressional Medal of Honor for her intervention. She does not live to see the medal or the annual special pension of $96. By 1818 the United States Congress authorized the forcible removal of all Indians living east of the Mississippi River to the western Indian Territories in what has become Oklahoma.

1821 - 1845 (U.S. Territorial Days) Northerners sailing south around the Florida Keys arrive via St. Marks to settle Magnolia on the St. Marks River. African Americans continue to live along the Wakulla River, some having lived here since the Spanish eras. Wakulla County was chartered in 1843 with Newport as the County Seat. Magnolia joined Port Leon in becoming a ghost town. African American oarsmen ferry people up the Wakulla River to see the wondrous spring.

1845 Florida is admitted to the United States.

1850s Word of Wakulla Springs' beauty and clear water spreads through travel books, articles and newspapers. Sarah A. Smith identified mastodon bones on the floor of the spring basin.

1870 - 1925 Fertile uplands on the west side of the Wakulla River are farmed and African American churches in the area hold traditional baptisms at Wakulla and surrounding springs. At the turn of the century northerners try to develop the large Wakulla Spring into a health resort "Under The Pines."

1925 Developer George T. Christie purchases Wakulla Springs and clears land for a swimming and excursion area. Area residents continue to offer boat rides, pulling large oars upstream into the clear spring boil.

1931 Mastodon bones are removed from the spring. The reconstructed skeleton is displayed at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee. Pathe News filmed its first underwater news clip of the recovery of the bones.

1934 Financier Edward Ball purchases acreage around the main spring and develops plans to add a hotel and more acreage. Boat rides continue during the transition.

1937 Wakulla Springs Lodge opens.

1941 - 1942 "Tarzan's Secret Treasure" and "Tarzan's New York Adventure" are filmed at Wakulla Springs.

1943 During World War II, nearby Camp Gordon Johnston uses the spring for amphibious training exercises, rest and relaxation for soldiers training at the Camp near Carrabelle.

1953 - 1956 "Creature from the Black Lagoon", "The Creature Walks Among Us" and "Around the World in 80 Days" are filmed at the Springs.

1963 The National Audubon Society designates Wakulla Springs a wildlife sanctuary.

1975 - 1976 "Airport 77" and "Joe Panther" are filmed at the Springs.

1981 Edward Ball dies, leaving the Springs in the trust of the Edward Ball Wildlife Foundation. Due to insolvency the Nemours Foundation is appointed trustee.

1986 The state purchases the Springs and surrounding 2,860 acres from the Nemours Foundation for $7.15 million and creates the Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park.

1989 National Geographic sponsors a professional cave diving expedition into the underwater caverns for a television special.

1993 Wakulla Springs State Park is designated a National Historic and Archaeological District.

1995 During the renovation of the historic lodge, State Archaeologist Calvin Jones discovers archaic artifacts, confirming human presence in the area for a period of more than 12,000 years.

1996 Friends of Wakulla Springs State Park is organized to prevent the construction of a service station on an environmentally sensitive location near the Park entrance. The State eventually purchases that property.

1997 Hydrilla, an aquarium plant native to Sri Lanka, begins to invade the spring basin. Apple snails and the limpkin disappear. View a 57 page SLIDE SHOW on the subject of the declining quality of Wakulla Springs and River. (5.3mb .pdf)

1998 Dive teams from Global Underwater Explorers and the Woodville Karst Plain Project conducts a world record 3.5 mile cave penetration dive. The dive teams set additional world records in the Springs during the next 7 years.

2000 Another 3,000 acres is added to the original park acreage, including Cherokee Sink, to protect the groundwater known as the Floridan Aquifer. It is estimated that there are 18 sinkholes on Wakulla Springs State Park property.

2000 Florida Springs Report The Florida Springs Task Force created this document to educate the general public and to recommend strategies for the protection and restoration of Florida's springs. (63mb .pdf)  When using a 56K modem, download time may exceed 2.3 hours.

2005 Report of the Peer Review Committee, Solving Water Pollution Problems in the Wakulla Springshed A workshop was convened on May 12 and 13, 2005, in Tallahassee, Florida. At this workshop, scientific and engineering experts from government agencies, academia and private industry assessed water quality problems in Wakulla Springs and River, explored their causes and consequences, and proposed solutions or mitigating strategies. (3,2mb.pdf)

2005 Protecting Wakulla Springs by Reducing Wastewater Nitrate Leaching, By John B. Richardson The purpose of this study is to determine which biological effluent treatment method, wetland construction or cropland sprayfield irrigation, best reduces nitrate leaching and helps to preserve Wakulla Springs, one of Florida's most treasured tourist destinations and natural ecosystems. (1.4mb .pdf)