Limestone Quarry at Perry’s Swim School

Robert Perry

Rasmussen College

G245/GLY1000 Section 03 Geology - Summer 2010

Kimberly Gischia

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Thesis This project will determine the difference between a cave and a fisher to answer the question

“Is the hole in the earth a cave or a fisher?’ Included in the research are various topics of exploration

that establish groundwork in the fields of Geology, History, Agriculture, and Speleological Research.

Photo documentary evidence will produce clues to the features of the hole in the earth. Scientific

research on soil as well as ground penetrating radar identifies unseen features around the perimeter of

the entrance to the pit.

Outline I. Introduction

II. First Point

III. First Point – Florida Department of Agriculture

a. Soil Survey

b. Ground Penetrating Radar

c. Conclusive Findings

IV. Second Point – History of the land.

a. Alverez Land Grant

b. Limestone Excavation in Ocala

c. Limestone and Phosphate boom

d. US Geological Survey Map of 1895

V. Third Point – Florida Speleological Society

a. Initial Investigation

b. Field Study

c. Digging for a Cave

d. Documentation of Expedition

e. Artifacts Recovered from Dig

VI. Closing Statement

Limestone Quarry at Perry’s Swim School

Located in Ocala, Florida at Perry’s Swim School there is a plot of land that sits behind the house

with a large hole in the ground. For several decades it was believed to have been a sinkhole that formed

a long time ago. Recently a team of experts came to the Quarry in search of something more indicative

to the land feature. The researchers from the Florida Speleological Society knew that the Quarry held a

secret that at one time in the history of Ocala was a big deal. They were in search of the entrance to the

largest cave system in Florida known as the Ocala Ridge. There are several clues that cohere to their

theory and throughout this paper the reader will discover how these clues came to be.

Florida Department of Agriculture In the fall of 2009 the Florida Department of Agriculture began to take interest in the property

located at 412 NE 17th Avenue Ocala, FL 34470 known as Perry’s Swim School. In cooperation with the

Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS for short), Area II Resource Soil Scientist Alfred O. Jones

came on site to conduct a preliminary soil profile

boring. Using a 70 inch auger with a 2 inch digging

head, Mr. Jones conducted a field investigation to

the existence of sinkhole activity around the

perimeter of the Borrow Quarry. The quarry as

seen in the image to the right, occupies a great

majority of the property at Perry’s Swim School.

After conducting the soil survey, Mr. Jones

completed a USDA NRCS approved Soil Profile Boring summary. In this summary Mr. Jones states the

following “This report is for an onsite Soils investigation I did on September 9, 2009 (field work) in

Township 13S; Range 19E; Section 9. The applicant is requesting needed Soils borings and GPR

Perry's Swim School Boundary Survey. Courtesy Absolute Land Surveying & Mapping, LLC and Albert Peek.

investigations to place an Abandoned Limestone on the Historical Register in the City of Ocala. Below

are the Soil Profile Descriptions found at this location.”

Soil Profile Boring #1

0 – 5” Dark gray (10YR 4/1); and brown (10YR 5/3 & 4/3) Fine sand 5 – 22” Gray (10YR 4/1) with remnants of asphalts and cobble Fine sand sized Plinthite (Ironstone form of Fe oxides). 22 – 26” Gray (10YR 5/1) Fine sand 26 – 42” Grayish brown (10YR 5/2) with pockets of Gray (10YR 6/1) Loamy fine sand 42 – 58” Very dark brown (10YR 2/2) with remnants of decaying Sandy clay loam organic matter (Old tree) & golf ball sized Limestone Loamy fine sand Rocks Shell fragments. 58 – 70” Dark gray (10YR 4/1) with many small & medium Limestone Fine sand Rock fragments. 70” Plus Very dark gray (10YR 3/2) with Sulfur Odor and Decaying Loamy fine sand Oak tree remains (Acorns). Soil Profile Boring #2

0 – 1” Dark gray (10YR 4/1) Fine sand 1 – 4” Brown (10YR 5/3) Fine sand 4 – 11” Brown (10YR 5/3) Sandy clay loam 11 – 19” Light brown gray (10YR 6/2 & yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) with gray (10YR 5/1) mottles; white (10YR 8/1) powdered limestone; and few small & medium plinthite rocks (Fe Stone) Sandy clay loam 19 – 38” Gray (10YR 5/1) with brownish yellow (10YR 6/8) Mottles; few medium & large plinthite rocks & few medium and large Limestone rocks. Sandy clay loam 38 – 44” Dark gray (10YR 4/1) with dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) Mottles; white powdery Limestone; few fine & medium Limestone rocks and small & medium Plinthite rocks. Sandy clay 44 – 54” Gray (7.5YR 5/1) with many medium & coarse dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) mottles; and fine & medium Plinthite rocks. Sandy clay 54 – 58” Gray (10YR 6/1) with very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) and very dark brown (10YR 3/2); common medium & coarse Iron deposits (Soft Plinthite) and few medium very dark Grayish brown (10YR 3/2) pebbles of Plinthite. Alfred O. Jones Area II Resource Soil Scientist

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) December 8, 2009 NRCS continued the

survey with a Ground Penetrating Radar analysis of

the land. The field survey included several transects

of the field to the north of the quarry and in the field

to the south of the quarry. Soil Scientist Douglas

Lewis operated a GPR unit by dragging the radar

behind his vehicle called a sled. As the sled was being

towed, the data being recorded by the computer inside the cab of the vehicle recorded the images from

below the ground. The main purpose of the GPR investigation was to identify the depth of the limestone

under the topsoil of the land. By determining the depth of the limestone, the scientist is able to

determine if there are any sink holes forming under the ground.

Conclusive Findings

The evidence or lack of evidence of sink holes under the ground gives meaning to the formation

of the Quarry. It is also a method of determining if there

are caves, fishers, or underground anomalies that we

cannot see with the naked eye. Here are the results

from the GPR field test equipment. This is only a partial

printout of the GPR data collected from the sled radar

device. The full spectrum of colors shows that there is a

number of voids under the limestone layer however,

the results of the GPR survey came in inconclusive due

to the interference received by the 10YR 6/1 very dark gray sandy clay.

History of the Land The history of Ocala, Florida in 1817 was a significant year as Antonio Alverez, Royal Secretary to

the Spanish Governor at St. Augustine acquired a land grant of 1,500 acres in what was then known as

the Big Swamp or Hammock. Alverez was also the Mayor of the city of St. Augustine at the time that he

received the land grant. Although he never occupied the land, it serves as a reminder that the influence

of the developing area began as a Spanish Grant. In 1925 a large portion of the land was purchased by

Gad Humphries for the development of a Plantation. Over the next few decades, the Seminole War had

a great deal of responsibility in shaping the layout of the city of Ocala.

Ocala was always a destination for agriculture, tobacco trade, lime rock export, and phosphate

export due to the industrial boom in 1929. In the 1930’s Limestone was excavated from three different

sites that are officially identified as quarries by the city of Ocala records department. The three quarries

are located at different points and are still in existence today. Although the limestone quarries are now

exhausted, they serve as a reminder of the early development of the roads and highways that connect

the city to the county.

There are however, several undocumented quarries in and around the city of Ocala. The reason

most of these quarries are undocumented is because of the 1930’s great depression. In these times,

many people were looking for anything they could get their hands on to earn money with. Dr. Henry

Harrell of Ocala was no exception. When Dr. Harrell occupied the land in 1933 that is now Perry’s Swim

School’s south border, he utilized some of the limestone from the abandoned quarry on the property for

his own garden. His son Henry Harrell, Jr. recalls playing in the quarry at a young age. He has told the

Perry’s of the adventures he would have in the system of caves located at the bottom of the quarry.

To this day, the Perry’s Swim School quarry remains undocumented and the remnants of a

history of limestone excavation has been forgotten about. Neither the city nor the county will take any

responsibility for removing the limestone to use for the bedding of the roads in the area.

There are features of the limestone that give clues to the theory that the stone was removed

instead of a sinkhole scenario. Jim Buckner Ecologist for the State of

Florida recently went onsite to the quarry to discover some of the local

features of the land. As required by the State of Florida to complete the

Archeological form AR40, remote sensing of the land is essential to the

discovery of clues to the history of the land. During the remote sensing

session conducted by Mr. Jim Buckner, the overburden debris was found

at the north of the quarry above the rim of the limestone wall. The

overburden consisted of black clay that was foreign to the topsoil of the

area. As Mr. Buckner tried to remove some of this overburden, he was

unable to dig into the

earth. Secondly, a few

heavy cables were located

around the south western

edge of the quarry. These

cables are too thick to be

used for electricity and

are typically used to

excavate large stones of rock from the quarry to the staging yard. The staging yard is another key piece

of evidence that Mr. Buckner identified. To export Limestone to use for road creation or agricultural

purposes, there would have been a large collection lot for the blocks of Limestone to rest before

transportation. This lot is located to the south of the quarry and it features is a zero degree slope next to

the 60 degree slope at the mouth of the quarry.

Another historical reference article to the formation of the quarry is the United States

Geological Survey map of 1895. In this map, there are

elevations, notifications of caves, quarries, swamp

lands, and rail road’s. A few of the street level grids of

the city of Ocala are seen as well as the border of the

city limits. In the high resolution version of this map

along with an overlay layer on Google Earth, the

viewer can see that the land where Perry’s Swim

School resides is not indicated to be a quarry. Rather,

the land map of 1895 indicates that the land is flat and

more like a farm pasture for cattle. This evidence has

been brought to the city manager’s attention for further research but we are still waiting on the results.

Florida Speleological Society After completing the research required contributing to the form AR40 (Department of State

Archives Florida) further investigation was required to identify why the quarry was discontinued prior to

the acquisition of the land by Newton A. Perry and Dorothy R. Perry. The resources of the Florida

Speleological Society were granted access to the quarry in search of the reason behind the closure of the

Limestone pit lead by David Lizads (President Florida Speleological Society), Shawn Roberts (Geology

Major), and Bill Walker (Speleologist). After the first three initial

surveys, digging began at the basin of the quarry where the team

found a water runoff drain pipe from the city streets above the

property. The digging continued for six months until the team

had uncovered several hundred tons of dirt from the ground.

What once began as a shovel full of dirt grew into an enormous

hole in the earth. The search for the mouth of the cave system

was under way.

Throughout the history of the Florida Speleological Society many members were reminded of

the cave systems that were once found under the city of Ocala. In the local area, there are three points

of interest that are connected to the cave at the Perry’s Swim School location. In the early 1970’s the

construction of the Cascades Professional Plaza required the builders to use dynamite to collapse the

cave under the ground of the site. This dynamite blasting ruined most of the major caverns in the cave

but did not harm the mouth of the cave at the Perry’s Swim School Site. Instead, Newton A. Perry

contracted a local builder to fill in the cave with sand and fill dirt. This fill dirt is what was found and

removed by the Florida Speleological Society in the early months of 2010.

Shawn Roberts declared that the opening to the cave that was dug out was in fact not a cave at

this time. The reason he declared this is because the drainage pipe leading into the mouth of the cave

caused erosion and the date of the pipe installment was unknown. Shawn explained how caves were

formed in the Limestone from standing water rather than running water. He explained that the

Limestone being like a sponge was very porous and that the difference between a fisher and a cave was

that the cave had to be created at the time that the Limestone settled on the earth. The fisher that is in

the quarry is not created by man or by standing water but it was created by runoff water from the early

development days of the city of Ocala.

Several artifacts were recovered from the dig site, mostly debris from a hundred years worth of

waste refuse. There were some valuable bottles recovered from the dig site. One bottle in particular was

dated 1910 and holds the inscription Chattanooga Medicine Co. This was the first bottle recovered at

the dig site and is in almost perfect condition. A few other bottles were recovered but they did not hold

the age significant like the 1910 one. The bottles removed from the dig site are key pieces of evidence

linking the quarry to dates prior to the 1920’s. They also help provide proof that the water runoff was

the cause of the carving of the fisher crack in the bottom of the pit.

Conclusion Perry’s Swim School has a wealth of geological features of the land. In the following pictures you

will see how many examples of geology at a glance.

To view more photos in full resolution visit http://picasaweb.google.com/rockp223

The opening in the ground at Perry’s Swim School is still under investigation. During this coming

fall when the sun dies down and the mosquitoes go away, the FSS will come back on site and continue

the dig. At present, the mystery still remains to the exact whereabouts of the cave entrance to the Ocala

Ridge. The cave located in the limestone quarry was hand dug out of the foreknowledge that once an

entrance to the cave system of the Ocala Ridge existed on the property. This foreknowledge came by

way of a personal letter by Henry L. Harrell, Jr., MD 1706 SE 28th St. Ocala, FL 34471. In the letter he

wrote the following correspondence at the request of Jim Buckner of Marion County.

“To Whom It May Concern:

From 1945 until about 1951, I lived with my family in the stucco house on NE 3rd St. (then called “Old Silver Springs Road”) just to the south of the current Perry Swim School and the land behind it. There was no NE 17th Ave. at that time. The eastern edge of our yard and the woods behind it (now Perry property) was bounded by a fence separating us from the Wisdom O’Neal cattle farm (later converted to a tree farm and still later developed as Heritage Hills.)

The pit now seen behind the Perry Swim School was present at that time and was heavily overgrown with trees and large wild grape vines, indicating that it was many years old even then. It was always referred to as a “lime pit,” which was the term used to signify an old phosphate lime mining site. The fact that there was what appeared to be a narrow roadway leading down one side and into the pit would seem to corroborate this description.

I am very familiar with the pit, as I spent much of my early childhood playing Tarzan swinging from the sides of the pit on grape vines. Signed.

Henry L. Harrell, Jr., MD 1706 SE 28th St. Ocala, FL 34471 (352) 622-5451

“

This letter indicates that the limestone quarry existed here in the center of Ocala, Florida but

does not indicate when or why. No further records exist of an organization extracting limestone from

the quarry. The quarry was determined to be a limestone quarry by the Natural Resources Conservation

Services in 2009. The big question that remains a mystery is why did the production halt at or around

the turn of the century? Was the mine in production during the boom of the 1920’s when the city of

Ocala had a population sprawl? Back in those days, the Perry’s property was considered out in the

country. The city limits did not expand to include Perry’s Swim School until after State Road 40 was built

heading east to Silver Springs.

Whatever the reason for halting the extraction of limestone from the quarry is, the fact remains

that it was and still is a large hole in the ground. With any land feature that is as deep and does not hold

water, there must be some type of drain that leads to the aquifer. This drain is often called a fisher in

circumstances like this. Sometimes cave systems are carved out of the land where limestone goes deep

down into the layers of the earth.

References

Jones, A. O. (n.d.). USDA NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service [Abandoned Limestone Quarry

HISTORICAL REGISTRATION] (Soil Borings for Rock Perry No. 1). 111 YELVINGTON RD., SUITE 4

EAST PALATKA, FL 32131: United States Department of Agriculture.

Harrell, H. L., Jr.,MD. (2010, January 7). To Whom It May Concern:. Document presented at Perry's Swim

School, 412 NE 17th Avenue Ocala, FL 34470.

Absolute Land Surveying & Mapping, LLC. (2009). Boundary Survey For: Albert Peek. Unpublished raw

data.

Perry, R. N. (2009 - 2010). Photographs from Perry's Swim School Quarry [Digital Photography].

http://picasaweb.google.com/rockp223: Robert Perry.