The Blue Hole is a fresh water

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

and

cenote A cenote ( or ; ) is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting when a collapse of limestone bedrock exposes groundwater. The term originated on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where the ancient Maya commonly used cenotes for water supplies, and ...

located in

Castalia Castalia (), in ancient Greek and Roman literature, was the name of a spring near Delphi, sacred to the Muses; it is also known as the Castalian Spring. It is said to have derived its name from Castalia, a naiad-nymph, daughter of the river-g ...

, Erie County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, in the United States. From the 1920s to 1990 the Blue Hole was a tourist site, attracting 165,000 visitors annually at the height of its popularity, partly because of its location on State Route 269, about southwest of the

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounc ...

amusement park in

Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in Erie County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( west) and Cleveland ( east). At the 2020 United Stat ...

. The Blue Hole was known to Native Americans and its first known recorded description was in 1760. The Blue Hole captured the public’s interest because of its size, about in diameter, clarity, vibrant blue hue, and enigmatic "bottomless" appearance. Contrary to prevalent belief, the depth of the Blue Hole is not unknown, but has been sounded and found to be about deep. Water temperature is about throughout the year.

Floods A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

and

droughts A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

have no effect on temperature or water level. The Blue Hole is fed by a passing underground

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

which discharges of water daily into

Sandusky Bay Sandusky Bay is a bay on Lake Erie in northern Ohio, formed at the mouth of the Sandusky River. It was identified as ''Lac Sandouské'' on a 1718 French map, with early variations recorded that suggest the name was derived from Native American l ...

to the north, feeding into

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

. The water contains

lime Lime most commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Bo ...

, soda, magnesia and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

, and because the Blue Hole is

anoxic Anoxia means a total depletion in the level of oxygen, an extreme form of hypoxia or "low oxygen". The terms anoxia and hypoxia are used in various contexts: * Anoxic waters, sea water, fresh water or groundwater that are depleted of dissolved ox ...

, it cannot naturally sustain fish. The surrounding

terrain Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is developed on

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

and exhibits

karst topography Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

due to dissolution of the limestone by

ground water Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...

, creating a cenote, a water-filled

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...

. Several similar cenotes are known to local residents. The Blue Hole that once was a tourist attraction is now off limits to the public. It is located on the grounds of Castalia Trout Club, a privately owned fishing club. It is to be distinguished from another cenote, similar in size and eerie bluish-green color, owned by the Castalia State Fish Hatchery and operated by the

Ohio Department of Natural Resources The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is the Ohio government agency charged with ensuring "a balance between wise use and protection of our natural resources for the benefit of all." Functions ODNR regulates Ohio's oil and gas indus ...

, Division of Wildlife, which is open for public viewing and which has grown in popularity since the closure of the Blue Hole in the late 1990s.ODNR State Fisheries Management page
/ref>

References

*Powers, David.
Castalia Sings the Blues
" ''

Cleveland Scene The ''Cleveland Scene'' is an alternative weekly newspaper based in Cleveland, Ohio. The newspaper includes highlights of Cleveland-area arts, music, dining, and films, as well as classified advertising. The first edition of the newspaper was pu ...

'', May 27, 1999. *Chabek, Dan.
The Blue Hole
" ''The Buckeye Chronicles, a Compendium of Facts About Ohio History''. *
Roadside America
' website

External links

Live Search Maps "Birds Eye View" of original Blue Hole
an
original entrance

Vintage photograph postcards of Blue Hole
Bodies of water of Erie County, Ohio Landmarks in Ohio Lakes of Ohio Ponds of the United States Sinkholes of the United States

See also

References

Further reading

External links