JENNINGS CAVE VIOLATED
By Bill Walker

Jennings Cave, West of Ocala, has been filled in with large boulders.

The FSS was notified of the situation today by Dan Straley of TBAG. The following is his e-mail and pictures that they took:

"On Saturday morning myself and a few others attempted to visit Jenning's cave. Upon arrival we discovered that the entrance had been bulldozed shut. Rocks the size of cars had been placed in the entrance. Fortunately none of the large rocks made it to the bottom of the pit. Instead they bottle necked at the top. Al Negron and I managed to squeeze past the boulders and down into the cave. We found the gate cut open and Brian had just repaired it 2 weeks ago.

This cave belongs to the Southeastern Cave Conservancy Inc. and they are willing to prosecute. Sullivan Beck and Brian Williams will be making a report with the Sheriff's dept. later this afternoon."

Here are some pics that Dennis Carney took that morning:

Today, I (Bill Walker) met Sullivan, Brian, and Cindy Skop from the Ocala Star Banner, at the cave after work. Sullivan called the Marion County Sheriffs Department while Brian entered the cave to survey the damage. The Sheriffs Department decided it was not important enough to come out to the cave, so Sullivan gave the report over the phone. Brian had trouble exiting the cave and had to exit through an alternate crack.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was that these rocks are BIG! At first we thought that the rocks came from the area, but we couldn't find any signs of digging. Then we noticed that the boulders were covered with moss and ferns - they most likely came from a pit somewhere. The land around the entrance was also cleared of underbrush (at least they left the tree at the top of the pit.) In addition, the road above the cave was actually widened and graded so that heavy machinery could get down to the cave. The following photos were taken today:

Someone obviously spent thousands of dollars to close this cave. This was not not done by local residents. The rock on top of the pit probably weighs ten tons. I don't want to speculate who did this right now, though only a few "organizations" would have the bankroll and motives to do this.

I don't think I've ever seen such blatant disregard for property law. The SCCI and the FSS were not contacted prior to the cave being closed. Many laws were broken, including Florida Cave Law (look at subsection 2b and all the rest.)