The spring bowl at Wakulla is 315 feet in diameter and 185 feet deep, a vast opening into an underwater cave system that extends for more than 26 miles of explored passageways. Scientists have identified the remains of at least nine extinct mammal species in and around the spring, including mastodons, giant sloths, giant armadillos, and ancient camels. In 1850, a woman named Sarah Smith first reported seeing mastodon bones resting on the spring bottom, visible through the extraordinarily clear water. Fifty-four archaeological sites have been identified across the park, with excavations at the Wakulla Springs Lodge site revealing layer upon layer of human habitation stretching from Paleoindian through Seminole occupations.

In 1934, Edward Ball, the financial manager for the DuPont family's Florida holdings, purchased Wakulla Springs and set about building a destination that balanced tourism with habitat preservation. The lodge he constructed in 1937 is a two-story Mediterranean Revival structure with a marble and wrought-iron Art Deco staircase, hand-painted ceiling murals depicting Florida wildlife, and 27 guest rooms furnished with period pieces. Ball operated the springs as a private attraction for decades, offering glass-bottom boat tours that drifted over the mastodon bones and through the crystal channels of the spring run. After Ball's death, his trust sold the property to the State of Florida in 1986, creating the 6,000-acre state park that exists today.

In 1954, a film crew arrived at Wakulla Springs to shoot the underwater sequences for Creature from the Black Lagoon. The spring's remarkable clarity and the lush vegetation along its banks provided the perfect stand-in for an Amazonian lagoon. Stuntman Ricou Browning donned the Gill-man suit and swam through the spring's depths, his movements captured by underwater cameras in footage that became iconic in horror cinema. The lodge where the crew stayed still operates as a hotel, and visitors today swim in the same waters where the Creature once surfaced. It is one of those rare intersections where natural wonder and Hollywood mythology occupy the same coordinates.

Below the spring's opening, cave divers have pushed into miles of underwater tunnels, mapping a labyrinth that connects to the broader Woodville Karst Plain system. The Woodville Karst Plain Project has conducted major expeditions here, taking advantage of the spring's great depth and periodic clarity to advance diving research, technology, and safety techniques. In 1989, a professional cave diving expedition into Wakulla's underwater caverns was filmed for a National Geographic television special. Sally Ward Spring and Cherokee Sink are located within the park, and the nearby Leon Sinks Geological Area is part of the same karst network, a reminder that beneath the pine forests and cypress wetlands of north Florida lies a Swiss cheese of limestone tunnels through which an entire aquifer flows.

Above the spring, the park's 6,000 acres shelter pine forests, bald cypress wetlands, and hardwood hammock traversed by three trail systems open to hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders. White-tailed deer and wild turkey move through the uplands, while American alligators, gar, and bass patrol the spring run and surrounding swamps. In winter, West Indian manatees migrate into the warm spring waters, their dark shapes visible from the boat tours that still ply the river. The park's designation as both a National Natural Landmark and a National Register of Historic Places site reflects its dual identity: a place where geological time and human history converge at the edge of an ancient spring.