Diving McIntyre Spring 2017-11-18

One of the original explorers revisited south Georgia’s only known extensive underground spring cave system forty years later: McIntyre Spring on the Withlacoochee River.

Down to the spring, Diving
Photo: Guy Bryant

Who would have thought that off the Withlacoochee River under Brooks County, Georgia there were caves so big you can hardly see both the diver and the edge:

Cavernous, Diving
Photo: Guy Bryant

Here’s the video:


Video: Guy Bryant, YouTube, Published on Dec 15, 2017
Video taken at McIntyre Spring on Nov 18, 2017. The visibility was around 40 ft, but there were so many particulates in the water that it was like a sand storm as you’ll see in this video. I videoed Tom Hundley in the first 1100 feet of cave while Kyle Moschell & Deco Donahue relined and mapped another section of the cave. Also Adam Hughes sketched in the first 1200 ft of survey for a detailed map. I plan to redo the video when the spring clears more later in the year.

We first learned of McIntyre Spring from VSU Biology Prof. Emeritus David Bechler, who tipped us off last year to Guy Bryant’s blog post, which includes his previous map of 4610 feet of explored passage back under Brooks County, Georgia.

Since then two WWALS outings have gone to McIntyre Spring, July 9, 2016 and October 14, 2017. We’ve gotten that spring and Arnold Springs into the Brooks County Comprehensive Plan and into the upcoming Regional Comprehensive Plan by the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC).

Here’s Guy Bryant explaining McIntyre Spring on that October 2017 outing:

Guy Bryant explaining, McIntyre Spring
Photo: John S. Quarterman, WWALS outing, 2017-10-14.

And I dare any judge to claim we can’t say this is the karst containing our water supply:

Karst, Diving
Photo: Guy Bryant

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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