Likely the most heavily visited grouping of dry caves in the state (with the exception of Florida Caverns State Park), the Dames Cave area, located in the Citrus Tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest, has suffered decades of abuse.

 

The main cave at the site, Dames Cave 1, has been so heavily damaged over the years that it is now popularly known as Vandal Cave.

 

The nearby Peace Cave, so named for the huge "peace" symbol spray painted onto the large tree next to it's entrance, has suffered similar mistreatment. Known to once contain a bat maternity roost, the bats have been driven off by fires being lit in the cave, and from the purposful killing of their numbers by misguided visitors. All of the speleothems have been stripped from the cave. The stubby remains of the bases of hundreds of delicate soda straw formations give testament to the caves long lost beauty. The spray painted names and "slogans" on the cave's walls are more reminisant of what one would expect to see in the run down sections of any metropolitan inner-city area.

 

Girl Scout Cave (shown in the photo at the top of the page) has seen less damage, but still retains a few "tags" from spray painters. 

 

At this point the Division of Forestry has had enough of the wanton destruction of this significant resource. Teaming with The Karst Conservancy a management plan is in the developmental stages to restore this area to it's natural beauty and to curb the continued vandalism. Our goal is to develop the area into a self-guided geological preserve with interpretive signage describing the site's flora and natural features and their importance to the health of the Floridan Aquifer.