During the Paleo-Indian Period (the time between about 9,500 and 12,00 years ago, according to some writers) the area about Sarasota was much different from what we see today. The entire United States climate was vastly different. Areas of Nebraska extending into Canada had vast savannahs that were not unlike the coastal plains. In Florida, the peninsula was raised with areas now only at sea level, some one hundred feet above. The coast line extended far into the Gulf, and Indians who were in the area of Sarasota/Bradenton may have been twenty five to fifty miles from salt water. It is no wonder when archeologist search for middens they are often disappointed since those kitchen waste dumps are mostly well covered by waters and sand of the Gulf. The heaps of shells that are in many areas fronting the Gulf and Atlantic are most likely of more recent times.
Warm Mineral Springs is a site worthy of extensive exploration as it represents a cross section of the evolution of Florida as we now know it. The spring emerges from a limestone matrix with a cap which is of the Miocene era, when great upheavals of the land mass occurred corresponding to the deposition of major deposits of calcium carbonates, phosphates and sulfates. This deposition far predates Warm Mineral Springs, but it established the subterranean geology of the land mass permitting the extensive flow of fresh water from areas, far to the north. There are literally underground rivers that continue to flow today. (An interesting river of North Florida is the Alapaha which originates in Georgia and upon entry into Florida in the vicinity of Jasper, simply disappears as it sinks into the clean white sand of the river bed.)
Warm Mineral Springs is actually a misnomer as it is simply a sink hole like many others in Florida. However, the depth, shape and persistence provides an entrapment basin that continues to this day. Many sink holes in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, &c. form when the underground stream erodes the supporting sand and limestone foundation and a collapse of the structure continues until the hole suddenly appears. In most cases the bottom seals as the result of detritus. This redirects the underground flow of water and since the overburden is made up mostly of sand and coarse materials, the walls of the hole collapse and the structure assumes a cone shape. Trees and other vegetation grow in the area since it is close to the water table, enriched by debris and somewhat protected. With time all that remains is a depression in the ground, however, it is possible that the hole may fill from water not only from rains but also by percolation upward from the underground stream. Also, holes that are known to contain fish and other animals often spontaneously "flush", as the water table drops and the flow from the "lake" is to the underground stream instead of the reverse.
As pointed out by Susan Lynn White in her article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune, June 16, 1999, sink holes were, as they are now, important entrapment basins for water. Thus animals were attracted and accordingly Indians hunted in the area where sink holes were known to be, as opposed to areas where fresh water was more scarce. This would have been even more so, during periods of the dry season or drought. When the Warm Mineral Springs sink hole formed, it is probable that it was not unlike those that form spontaneously today. As it would have been some one hundred feet above sea level, water contained would have been fresh rather than brackish or mineral ladened
Exploring sink holes has always been risky as one is enticed to enter underwater caves which can become death traps. Nevertheless, exploration proceeds and it is not uncommon to discover, bones of animals that inhabited the area some ten to twenty thousand years ago. When Sonny Cockrell of Florida State University explored Warm Mineral Springs in 1973, he was not the first to do so. He, however, was better equipped and more methodical in his approach. Fragments of human skulls, bones and other residues of the era have been recovered.
If you have a natural curiosity of why these materials are here, the archeologist provide few answers. Why skulls but not more of the long bones, &c.? Does this mean the Indians were cannibals? Did they simply throw unwanted body parts into the sink hole or were they following some religious rite? Why are there so few animal bones in relation to the number of human remains, for surely animals far out numbered our predecessors, and surely man was wiser than the animals and shouldn't have become entrapped more frequently?
Perhaps these and other questions will be answered soon. I doubt it. The record of discovery appears to be on a twenty-five year cycle. James Moore's Phillippi Creek Man came to our attention in 1925. Then, William Royal found portions of several human skulls in the 1950s in the Spring. Our latest adventurer, W. A. Cockrell from Florida State did his exploration in the early 70s. But since Warm Mineral Springs has now been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is unlikely that the casual explorer will uncover the secrets of the past in this Spring.
This is what makes the records of James E. Moore all the more important. They paint a word picture of Florida, just as it was emerging from an environmentally unique capsule of times past, and became the Florida we know today, over populated, over developed, with its roots forever destroyed.
*** Warm Mineral Springs (also known as Warm Salt Spring, Salt Spring and Big Salt Spring) is one mile north of U. S. 41, and two miles south of the Myakka River in Sarasota, County Florida. (About twenty five miles from downtown Sarasota). As is typical of the area, the sandy soil supports sparse vegetation and development in the area detracts from any natural beauty. The Spring is a round open pit, some 200- 250 feet in diameter with a gradual sloping beach that drops sharply into the sink some twenty five or so feet from water's edge. It does not gush forth ( a sign on the property indicates the flow is 17,000 gallons every three minutes, state surveys indicate about 10 gallons per second or 5,000 gallons per minute) because of the large area to which the spring drains. And because of the sandy soil, much of the water percolates away rather than flowing into the nearby Myakka river. While the water's warm to one accustomed to colder climes, they actually never reach the Gulf water temperatures in Summer months. And mineralization is a question of comparative waters, certainly more dissolved solids are in the Springs' waters than that which we are accustomed to from a tap. And certainly the water has sulfur as any nose knows. (So what else is new when you have Florida described to the "tourist"?) The sink hole is deep, some two hundred feet or so, with an irregular center raised area composed of fallen materials, some of which no doubt date to the initial formation of the "hole".
The Spring and the surrounding countryside is unexciting, suffering from the encroachment of civilization and commercialization. A more primitive area is nearby Myakka State Park. There, by-way of air-boats you can skim over the shallow lake and see probably the world's greatest concentration of alligators. But that's another story. ****
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