OCALA, FL (352today.com) – In the rolling pine forests just south of Ocala once laid one of Central Florida’s strangest and most short-lived roadside attractions: Ocala Caverns. Originally a limestone quarry, then a refined roadside attraction boasting cave tours and uranium water, the site has long since faded from the public eye – but not from local lore.
The area’s origin dates back to the early 1900s as a working limestone quarry dug into Ocala’s karst terrain. By the 1930s, it had become a popular filming location, said to be used as a jungle backdrop in early Tarzan films.
The site saw its first transformation into a tourist attraction in 1935, when it was opened to the public as “Magic Valley and Coral Caverns,” where it allowed guests to view a scenic botanical garden and explore its dry caves, but in an era obsessed with miracle cures and radioactive health trends, the attraction would take a stranger turn.
By the late 1950s, the site rebranded as “Uranium Valley and Caves,” claiming the cave water held trace amounts of uranium and provided health benefits – particularly for the skin. There was no scientific backing for this claim, but the theme attracted curious travelers and lent an eerie mystique to the already unconventional site.
The property changed hands again in the 1960s when it was owned by Samuel Hesser, a former pro wrestler known as “Man Mountain Dean Jr.” and “Mighty Jumbo.” Hesser invested heavily in theatrics, adding underground boat rides, artificial waterfalls, colored lighting and a roadside caveman statue. He also opened a small “Wrestling Hall of Fame” exhibit and hosted holiday-themed events like “Santa Claus Land” during the winter season.
|Defunct Ocala: Where Wild Waters once flowed
Ocala Caverns reached its peak in 1966, when it appeared on the cover of the Marion County Visitors’ Guide. But its popularity was short-lived. By the 1970s, the construction of interstate highways routed potential visitors elsewhere, and following Hesser’s death in 1974, the attraction quickly fell into disrepair.
Nature reclaimed the site, with vandalism and overgrowth erasing much of what remained. In later decades, local cavers rediscovered the caverns and documented their findings. Efforts by groups like the Florida Speleological Society led to cleanups and cave gating in the 2000s to protect fragile cave life and prevent further vandalism.
Today, Ocala Caverns is closed to the public and sits on private property, though it’s occasionally visited by permitted cave divers and researchers. While the surface structures have crumbled and few remnants of the prior attractions remain, the caves persist – quiet, ancient and full of strange history.
What began as a quarry became a film set, then a health fad and, finally, a lost chapter in Marion County’s tourism legacy. Ocala Caverns may be buried by vines and time, but its story is as layered and winding as the caves beneath it.