Florida Caverns State Park, State park with a show cave in Jackson County, Florida, United States.

Florida Caverns State Park is a nature preserve with underground caves in northwest Florida carved out by hidden water flows. The chambers contain stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone formations built up over thousands of years through slow limestone dissolution.

Workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps expanded the caves in the 1930s and prepared them for visitors, leaving visible tool marks on the walls. These efforts made it possible for the public to safely descend underground and explore the limestone formations.

Archaeologist Ripley P. Bullen, analyzing finds in 1949, found no evidence anyone lived in the caves; he concluded a nearby Fort Walton village dug pottery clay from them, leaving barefoot footprints in one cave's clay floor. Local tradition holds that Native Americans hid from Andrew Jackson's troops in the caves, and that women, children and enslaved people sheltered there during the Civil War's Battle of Marianna.

You can only enter the caves as part of a guided tour, so plan to spend time exploring with a guide on hand. It stays cool below ground and the paths can be slippery, so wear sturdy shoes and bring a light jacket.

The passages were dissolved as the Chipola River cut its valley deeper and the water table fell, then lined with calcite from seeping rainwater. Archaeologist Ripley P. Bullen, excavating finds in 1949, found no sign anyone lived in the caves, but barefoot footprints pressed into a cave's clay floor, left by villagers digging pottery clay.