Legend of the Courthouse Cave in Marianna, Florida

Entrance to the Courthouse Cave

by Dale Cox

The legendary Courthouse Cave that runs beneath the City of Marianna is the subject of a very old story that is told in many different forms.

One popular version holds that the Jackson County Courthouse itself could disappear at any minute due to a collapse of the mysterious cavern. They point to cracks visible in the courthouse as evidence that the weight of the structure is pressing down on the ceiling of the cave.

Inside the cave, looking into a natural "forest" of formations

Another version tells of how early explorers could hear courtroom activity from above while deep within the cave.

Many if not most Jackson County residents have heard folklore about the cave. Here is the real story:The Courthouse Cave legend originates from a story that has been told around Marianna since at least the late 1800s. According to that tale, a pair of teenage friends were exploring the cave when their torch went out and they found themselves trapped in total darkness. Unsure of which way to go, they wandered deeper and deeper into the cave.

Passage leading deep under Marianna

Search parties were organized and groups of local men launched a rescue effort that took them deeper into the cave than any of them had ever been. The missing teenagers were found and brought out alive, but the rescuers told a fascinating story. At one point far into the cave they said that they heard sounds echoing down its passages. Thinking these sounds might be coming from the lost teenagers, the rescuers searched for their source. According to the legend, the noises turned out to be the sounds of courtroom activity drifting down through the roof of the cave!

So is the story true?  Well, let's just say that it is one of hundreds of colorful Jackson County stories that result from a bit of exaggeration.

There is in fact a large cavern called the Courthouse Cave that runs deep under part of the City of Marianna, even though it doesn't quite reach all the way to the courthouse and worries of the building tumbling into it have no foundation.

I will be a little circumspect about its actual location, but the cave stretches for hundreds of yards beneath parts of Marianna. Experienced cavers have explored and mapped it, learning in the process that its myriad of passages connect to at least two other named caves.

Inside the Courthouse Cave

While the story of being able to hear courtroom activity deep inside the cave is not true, it does have a rich and important history. Prehistoric American Indian artifacts dating back thousands of years have been found inside the entrance, clear evidence that hunting parties used it as shelter when hunting along the hills on which Marianna was later founded.

On September 27, 1864, the day of the Battle of Marianna, the cave provided shelter and a hiding place for many of the city's women, children and elderly. The Union troops arrived on the west side of Marianna so quickly that many of the town's people did not have time to evacuate. As the men and boys gathered on Courthouse Square to organize for the fight, noncombatants headed for the Courthouse Cave.

View of a connecting passage in Courthouse Cave

The presence of the cave was never discovered by the Union soldiers and many Marianna residents remained safely hidden there with their valuables while the battle took place overhead. They emerged the next day after the Federal troops withdrew only to find that their homes had been ransacked and vandalized. This story is not a legend, but was told by many of those who survived the Battle of Marianna until the day they died.

Another story that may or may not be legend holds that members of the Republican Party hid arms, ammunition and assassins in the cave during the Reconstruction-era violence that swept through Jackson County in 1865-1876. Documentation of this has not been found, but the cavern's proximity to the scenes of some of the most severe violence of that era adds credibility to the tale.

During the Prohibition era (1920-1933), the cave was used as a place to store secret stocks of bootleg liquor. While claims that a speakeasy or illegal bar called the "Bloody Bucket" operated in it may or may not be true, evidence of moonshiner activity has been found in several Jackson County caves.

The stories all combine to make the cave a myseterious and fascinating place.

It is on private property and not open to the public.

Please click play below to enjoy a "behind the scenes" visit to another legendary Jackson County cave:




To learn more about caves and their place in Jackson County's history, please enjoy the books below from author Dale Cox: