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Divers find a cloud of hydrogen sulfide and then the bottom of a sinkhole rumored to contain a cave with no end.
By MATTHEW WAITE
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 19, 2001
PORT RICHEY -- Local lore had it that the sinkhole filled with freshwater in the Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park was a bottomless cavern, where lead weights tied to ropes sent below had never found the bottom.
So it was with a bit of disappointment Saturday morning that divers found the bottom just 40 feet down. And they had to go through a cloud of noxious hydrogen sulfide to get to it.
"It's like diving into rotten eggs," said Paul Heinerth, an internationally recognized diver and co-owner of Scuba West Inc. in Hudson. Heinerth and Ken Caraccia, an environmental consultant from New Port Richey, had to come out of the water because their skin and eyes were burning from the cloud.
But the day wasn't a total letdown.
While divers were dipping down into the foul waters, student volunteers from the local BSA Explorer Post 604 spent several hours looking at the surrounding area for signs of an ancient civilization that may have used the freshwater pond.
And they found something.
Dr. Burt Golub, the volunteer leader of the post, said the seven students out on Saturday morning found pottery shards and pieces of ancient tools. He made an educated guess that they came from about 1000 B.C. The pieces might not be exciting to most; but for the Explorer Post, it was a real find to stumble on something 3,000 years old.
"We know there is something out there now," Golub said Sunday. He said the post, which is one of two nationally that focuses on archaeology, hopes to go out again and look for more.
Their discoveries will fill in knowledge of the early days of the state park, said assistant park manager and park ranger Rob Wakeland. He said volunteers, like the Explorer Post, are helping to catalog the natural and archaeological treasures of the 4,000 acre park and Saturday's finds help the state know what they have.
"We have a lot to protect for future generations," he said.
What the group had hoped to find was a deep cave or some other area that may contain artifacts of a former civilization, such as canoes.
For the first 15 feet, all was well. The water was fresh and cool, unlike the surrounding saltwater ponds and tributaries. But after 15 feet, the water became foul with hydrogen sulfide, a product of the chemical reaction caused by intruding saltwater, freshwater and decaying plants washed there from the surrounding land.
But again, Wakeland said it lets them know what's in the park and it gives park managers a baseline reading so they know how healthy the park is and what they need to do to make it better.
"Everything that's out there is natural Florida," Wakeland said.
-- Staff writer Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.