Pearson Sink is the drainage point for over 41 square miles in Alachua County. It is an important recharge area for the Floridan Aquifer, the source of all drinking water in the entire region. When you look at the pictures of the sink, the water you see is the aquifer, open to the air and pollution. The danger of pollution also comes from underground.
The sink is named for T. Gilbert Pearson, the man who founded the Audubon Society.
Pearson was born in Illinois in 1873. The Quaker family moved to Archer, FL where Pearson spent his youth. He was intensely interested in nature, espcially birds, and roamed the area collecting the animals and their eggs. (His room must frequently have had a strange odor.)
The land on which the sink is located has been owned for over 40 years by Mr. and Mrs. Elbert Hough. They bought it because of the unique beauty of the setting and because Mr. Hough had fished there as a child. In the early 1900's, some Archer churches used it for baptisms. Fortunately there is no record of any children or adults having been dropped into the sink during baptism. In 1998 St. John River Water Management District divers found that it is at least 100 feet deep. They were never able to reach the bottom.