Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State Park, Cave diving state park in Suwannee County, US
Wes Skiles Peacock Springs State Park is a 733-acre Florida state park on Peacock Springs Road, two miles east of Luraville and 16 miles southwest of Live Oak. It contains Peacock and Bonnet Springs, six sinkholes, and more than 38,000 feet of explored underwater cave passage in limestone. The two springs are tributaries of the Suwannee River.
The limestone caves beneath the park formed millions of years ago when shallow seas covered this part of Florida and slowly dissolved the rock over time. Later, as water levels changed, the passages took on the shape they have today.
The park was renamed in 2010 to commemorate diver and explorer Wes Skiles; before that it was called Peacock Springs State Park. The name Peacock itself comes from the springs, whose three main openings, Peacock I, II and III, are the usual entry points for visiting cave divers.
Only certified cave divers are allowed into the submerged passages, while other visitors can swim in the spring areas and walk the surface trails. Cooler months tend to offer more stable conditions for both diving and swimming.
The park's cave system was first explored by Vasco Murray in 1956, and Sheck Exley's team made over 521 dives to complete the first map in 1995. In 2010, Agnes Milowka and James Toland connected Baptizing and Peacock springs, adding about 3,000 m to the system.
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