Falling Waters State Park - Chipley, Florida - State Park Passport Locations on Waymarking.com

Long Description:
The park’s history is colorful. During the Civil Was era, the waterfall provided power for a grist mill which was operated for several years by Duke Horne. After it was abandoned, timbers fell into Falling Waters Sink. Some of them were recovered in 1962 and are on display in the park. A whiskey distillery was once operated legally just above the waterfall and furnished the spirits for a wine shop established to meet the demands of men at the frontier railway construction site that was to become the town of chipley. An apparent earth fault in the area attracted a serious wildcat effort to find oil in 1919. The drillers, taking periodic samples, drilled past the 3,900-foot mark and got a blow of gas; but no oil in commercial quantities flowed and the well was capped and abandoned in 1922. Long before the grounds were donated to the state, the area was the site of a plant nursery. From the early 1920s until some time in the 1930s when the economic depression caused the nursery’s failure, non-native plants were taking hold. As a result, exotic species such as mimosa, Japanese privet and date palm can still be found.

The most obvious feature at Falling Waters is the sinkhole characterized by conical depressions with steep limestone walls where ferns and mosses take hold. Around the sinks and near the bottom of the hills, you can detect the slope forest with its well-developed, closed canopy forest of upland hardwoods on steep slopes and ravines. The trees found there are white oak, Southern magnolia, sourwood, American beech and flowering dogwood. Wild azaleas reach peak bloom in the spring. The upland pine forest rolls with widely-spaced pines, few under story shrubs and a dense groundcover of grasses and herbs. Broad, open areas encourage growth of fields of wildflowers such as meadow-beauty and Osceola’s plume. Fox squirrels, red fox, red-headed woodpeckers, bobwhite, quail, as well as many other animals inhabit the pine forest.


**You can get your book stamped at the ranger station as you enter the park**

**Information gathered from the Florida State Park web site**

Name of Park, Protected Area, or Cultural Location: Falling Waters State Park Name of System or Passport Program: Florida State Park Passport Book Passport Available: Yes, for purchase Parking or Entrance Fee: $5 Park Website: [Web Link] Address of Station: 1130 State Park Rd. Chipley, Florida United States 32428

Visit Instructions:
No special instructions, but a picture of yourself or of something unique to that place would be a nice touch.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   6/26/2020 BONSAIRAD visited it 12/26/2008 Queens Blessing visited it

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