Lake Jackson and Porter Sink in Tallahassee, Florida

Lake Jackson drains because it is a karst lake whose only inflow is rain and stormwater, while water leaks out through sinkholes in its bottom.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's dry-down FAQ says the basin formed when limestone bedrock dissolved and the overlying sediments collapsed, and that the lake lies in a closed 27,000-acre, or 42-square-mile, drainage basin north of Tallahassee. Water leaves through the sinkholes, through evapotranspiration and by downward seepage through the lake-bottom sediments.

Two big sinkholes in the Lake Jackson bed show how the karst works, according to DEP: Lime Sink in the northern portion and Porter Hole Sink in the southern area. A dry-down comes from a combination of below average rainfall, low lake levels, lowered groundwater and high evapotranspiration, and in its last stages the lake appears to drain as though someone pulled the plug from a bathtub.

Storms matter more than yearly totals at Lake Jackson. DEP's FAQ says annual or long-term rainfall does not appear to be as important to keeping levels up as large, heavy storms that can fill the lake quickly, and that intense events of more than 10 inches may speed refilling. The aquatic preserve page lists bottom leakage, sinkholes, evapotranspiration and a lack of heavy, localized rainfall as the conditions behind prolonged natural dry-downs.

Porter Hole Sink is a 28-foot-deep cavernous sinkhole near Faulk Drive Landing on Lake Jackson, and DEP says it is always draining, even when it is covered with water.

The Lake Jackson Aquatic Preserve page says Porter Hole Sink has famously disappeared and refilled dozens of times in recorded history, and that it has drained many times since June 2021.

Once water leaves the Lake Jackson basin it eventually enters the upper Floridan aquifer, DEP's FAQ says. Researchers think it may travel to Wakulla Springs, 20 miles south of the lake, but DEP says the timing and flow path in the aquifer need further investigation, and that dry-downs give researchers a chance to study the karst features and measure flow rates and direction.

Lake Jackson is not the only Tallahassee-area lake that behaves this way. DEP names Lake Miccosukee, Lake Iamonia and Lake Lafayette as sharing the trait, each with its own natural cycle, and notes that the Northwest Florida Water Management District keeps a water level gauge on Lake Jackson at Miller Landing.

DEP's record lists more than a dozen major or partial dry-downs at Lake Jackson since the first documented one in February 1829.

The DEP FAQ gives the lake's original name as Okeeheepkee, meaning disappearing waters, and dates the first documented disappearance in recent times to a February 1829 newspaper report.

Sources: DEP Lake Jackson Dry Downs FAQ; latest row from the aquatic preserve page.

The state's two descriptions of the cycle do not match. The FWC Lake Jackson fishing page calls it a natural sink-hole lake that periodically goes dry about every 25 years, while the DEP list shows events in 1999-2000, 2001-2003, 2006-2008, 2012 and 2021-2022, close together rather than 25 years apart.

DEP treats a natural dry-down as good for Lake Jackson's habitat.

The Lake Jackson Aquatic Preserve page says natural and periodic draining creates a cleansing effect, setting back invasive aquatic vegetation and exposing organic sediments that oxidize, decompose and compact back toward a sand bottom. The fluctuating levels keep any one invasive plant from dominating, though DEP names hydrilla, water hyacinth, Cuban bulrush and Chinese tallowtree as the lake's main threats.

The bass fishery is tied to those bottoms. DEP's FAQ says bass prefer to bed on sand to spawn but also eat small fish, fry and insects that live in muck, so dry-downs keep both kinds of Lake Jackson bottom. During a dry-down, fish take refuge in deeper holes in Church Cove, Rhoden Cove, Miller Landing, north of the Cattle Gap and in Meginnis Arm, and DEP says populations often rebound once the water returns.

FWC's site description calls the 4,000-acre lake nationally known for its largemouth bass fishery, shallow with an average depth of about 7 feet and a maximum of 30, with the best bass fishing from February through May. Its TrophyCatch tracker lists 67 Lunker Club bass of 8 to 9.9 pounds and 14 Trophy Club bass of 10 to 12.9 pounds submitted from Lake Jackson.

Lake Jackson is in a dry-down now: DEP says Porter Hole drained again after an inundation from December 2023 to October 2025, when the lake level had returned to average.

Because of the low water, the DEP preserve page sorts the Lake Jackson landings this way.

Source: DEP Lake Jackson Aquatic Preserve, read October 18, 2026. DEP warns that anything larger than a small mud boat or airboat is likely to get stuck.

Foot traffic is allowed at Faulk Landing and the Lake Jackson sinkhole area, but DEP says sinkholes and swallets are unmarked, footing on the soft mud is unpredictable, and visitors should not go down into the sinkhole or remaining pools because sediment may collapse. Lake-bottom driving with any motorized vehicle is prohibited and strictly enforced, fishing and hunting rules stay in effect under FWC, and DEP calls Faulk Landing Leon County's top birding destination during the dry-down.

A network of agencies works each Lake Jackson dry-down. DEP's FAQ lists DEP, FWC, the Florida Department of State, the Northwest Florida Water Management District, Leon County, the City of Tallahassee and law enforcement, and says a dry-down allows easier removal of Chinese tallow, prescribed fire on the lakebed, landing repairs and trash pickups.

The Florida Legislature made Lake Jackson, Carr Lake and Mallard Pond a 5,130-acre aquatic preserve in Leon County in 1973.

The DEP preserve page says the goal was to protect Lake Jackson from degradation caused by increased development in the watershed, and that the area may have been home to Native American populations as early as 14,500 years ago and was certainly occupied from the Middle Archaic to the Fort Walton period.

Public land lines parts of the shore. The City of Tallahassee says Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park, a 670 acre tract on the eastern shore of Lake Jackson, was purchased in October 1992 through the cooperative efforts of the Northwest Florida Water Management District, the city and the property owner, with the city buying 162 acres outright.

Florida State Parks describes Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park, at 3600 Indian Mounds Road, as the largest known ceremonial complex of the Fort Walton period (1000 to 1450 A.D.) in North Florida, and says the park encompasses six of the seven known earthen temple mounds. DEP's preserve page instead says the Division of Historical Resources identified seven earthen temple mounds within the park boundary, so the two state agencies count the mounds inside the Lake Jackson park differently.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by rereading the DEP Lake Jackson Aquatic Preserve page and its dry-down FAQ, the FWC Lake Jackson fishing page, the City of Tallahassee page for Elinor Klapp-Phipps Park and the Florida State Parks page for Lake Jackson Mounds.