Also once known as “Uranium Valley and Caves,” the Ocala Caverns were located on U.S. routes 301, 27 and 441, approximately eight miles South of Ocala. According to legend, the caverns were used as a hiding place by runaway slaves during the Civil War. The Ocala Caverns were open to the public as an attraction in the 1950s and 1960s, and at one time owned by a pro wrestler known as “Man Mountain Dean Jr.” and “Mighty Jumbo” (real name: Samuel Hesser), who weighed in at nearly 650 lbs., and Violet Ray, “Women’s Lightweight Wrestling Champion.” Attractions included two caves (one dry, one wet), an underground boat ride (basically Hesser kicked the rowboat out so tourists could get a glimpse of the cave and then he pulled it back with a rope), Callaway’s Rock Display, Inca Indian Museum, Wrestling Hall of Fame and Santa Claus Land (Hesser even made the December 1966 cover of the Ocala-Marion County Visitors Guide to the Kingdom of the Sun dressed as Santa Claus). The attraction closed in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and Hesser reportedly passed away from a brain tumor at the age of 51 in Iowa in 1974. In recent years, the Florida Speleological Society has made efforts to clean up the Ocala Caverns site.