LOCATION: (lat. 28°31'33.6" N., long. 82°32'52.6" W.)
Nursery Sink is located in a pasture 200-300 yards South of State Rd 50 and North of Melacano Ave in Hernando County, FL. It's across the road and to the West of Joes Sink, SW of the Withlacochee Electric Substation.
DESCRIPTION:
The sinkhole is submerged under a large brackish looking pasture pond most of the time and doesn't really look inviting. However, in times of drought, the sink itself is visible and is quite beautiful. When I last visited it had blue green water that was clear enough to see the edge rapidly dropping off to depth.
There is also a small steel arch spanning a depression that channels runoff into the sink. The arch has a bench with umbrella stand and fishing pole holders. I've viewed aerials from the 60's and I'm pretty sure it has been there for many moons.
Depth and vis fluctuate depending on rainfall and time of year.
The property has recently been put up for sale and a 5 strand
barbed wire fence is now hindering access to this site.
DIVELOG: Submitted by Mark Steingart
My good friend Robert Brooks, showed me this sinkhole more than one year ago. It didn't look very promising, but we decided to check it out anyway. Decending into the murky pond with easy beach access, we discovered a canyon-like fissure extending the length of the the bottom of the pond at a depth of 30 ft. decending into the Canyon which is from 3 to 8 feet wide and 30 to 40 feet long, passing depths of 70 feet into the clear water which at that time gave me a cobalt view of the canyon down to 130 feet, I knew we were onto something. I found an old guideline from an earlier explorer, it had obviously been there for many years. I followed it to a depth of 145 feet or so when the cave walls undercut into a very large room. The cave is actually an offset sink, the Canyon actually opens to one side - the shallower end of the Talus cone. Following the Talus cone around revealed a huge room more than 100 feet accross and close to 60 feet high, maximum depth approximately 230 ft.
There is very impressive breakdown along the far wall and is quite typical of the Dipolders, Eagles Nest formations. The place is very impressive, no leads out of the large room have yet been found.
We named the place "Circle Jerk Canyon" primarily because we went in a huge circle and felt like a couple of jerks for not finding the place years ago, its location is so obvious! The name is also a tongue-in-cheek nod to the Boy Scouts who own the Sand Hill Scout Reservation, right next door. Research indicates the original name of the Sink is "Nursery Sink". The water is pretty cold (66-68 F) I doubt there are any leads, but who knows?
