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The Importance of Florida's Springs The Importance of Florida's SpringsBy MIKE WALKER Most of us who live in rural Florida know about the springs: numerous state parks and other public lands have been planned around them and some of us may even be fortunate enough to have springs on our own land. You really cannot avoid the springs if you're in one of the counties between Gainesville and Tallahassee, not to say the rest of Florida is without springs, but they are
Anyone who has ever dug a swimming pool knows that in most places in Florida you only have to dig about ten feet or slightly more before you hit groundwater. This water, known as the surficial aquifer, is seperated from the Floridian aquifer far below it by confining beds of soil and underground caverns. Florida's hydrogeology is unique: while there are karst formations in other parts of the world and and surficial aquifer situations somewhat like our own in Georgia and South Carolina, Florida has a composite hydrogeological geography totally its own. Surrounded more or less on two sides by salt water and with fresh water lakes, streams, rivers, and swamps touching its northern boarders, Florida has water coming at it from every direction. If you ever fly into Orlando International Airport, especially if flying south from the north, you will notice scores of lakes all around Lake and Orange counties. Go further north and you encounter fewer lakes but still an ample supply of them, plus numerous rivers: the Suwannee, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe to the northwest, the St. Johns to the northeast, the Halifax and Indian rivers to the southeast. Springs are especially common along the floodplain of the Suwannee River which has
If you head northwest from Branford towards Mayo, you encounter some interesting springs on the Suwannee that allow a perfect display of how Floridian springs are employed for recreation. Springs such as Little River, Troy, and Royal springs allow for swimming and SCUBA diving plus boating via the Suwannee. When I was at Little River Springs a couple weeks ago, the "spring" season was very much underway and a while a group of high school kids swam and joked by the stones steps leading down into the water, a couple brought their outboard motorboat into the small harbor created by the springs from the Suwannee. Due to seasonal flooding, the color of the water was a tannish brown reminding one of sweet tea, but normally in the summer the water here is clear and pristine. In fact, most of northern Florida's springs are clear and tinted only the slightly pearl-blue or turquoise which has become the trademark of our springs, though those directly connected with a large river like the Suwannee can become flooded as Little River was during my visit. Suwannee County, which maintains Little River Springs as a park, and the Suwannee River Water Management District recently renovated the physical facilities surrounding the springs and now these include a boardwalk on one side and a stone walkway on the other plus a set of steps leading down into the springs and a ramp doing the same for the disabled. These renovations have a powerful aesthetic effect, framing the springs and their outlet to the Suwannee nicely, but also serve a pragmatic purpose of making it easier to access the springs and to prevent erosion. Likewise, Royal Springs is also a Suwannee County park and has been improved with a boardwalk leading down into the springs; both parks have port-a-potties for the use of park visitors. The City of Branford has, right in town, Branford Springs which keeps to the same basic theme of an old-fashioned swimmin' hole with a walkway overlooking the springs and allowing visitors to access them. Though somewhat smaller, Branford Springs draws a lot of people for swimming and enjoying the scene of the springs and adjoining Suwannee River. These springs, which have been fortunate to provide large enough areas of water for swimming, diving, and other recreation are not alone in northern Florida and in fact in this region composed of Suwannee, Gilchrist, and Alachua counties it's not uncommon to find smaller springs and boils on farming land and in the midst of the woods. Around the town of High Springs-its very name even telling of the import of springs to the area-there are many of these smaller springs which have not the geographic situation to become outstanding swimming holes but which do in many cases provide fresh water for farm animals, and perhaps still sometimes for people. Anywhere that limestone karst are found you'll also find two other facets of geology: springs and caverns. My grandfather had two springs on his farm in West Virginia which provided drinking water to the family and farm animals and not far away on his land were caverns that could be entered and explored. The big difference between most karst caverns in West Virginia and those here in Florida though is that the caves you'll encounter here are most often flooded, as they sit beneath the water table. Springs have always been in rural locales a prized feature of the land, given their ability to provide fresh water. Sometimes, though, the caverns were much less-prized: my father tells of my grandfather losing cattle that strayed too close to the opening to a cave and fell right in. The topology of springs varies a great deal, a fact that Florida's cave divers are very aware of but which may be discerned simply by walking in shallow portions of a spring such as Branford Springs or Little River Springs. In some places, the floor is very soft and sandy while in others it's worn, jagged, limestone. As springs, especially the more isolated ones, feed natural ponds, they provide a habitat for a wealth of different animals. In some cases, spring-fed waters have become ideal locations for fish farming just as they are ideal for recreation: In Gainesville, Glen Springs just north of what is now the Alfred A. Ring Nature Park once fed a pool where neighborhood kids would go swimming, but the same location is now owned by the local Elks' Lodge which uses it for breeding fish for a catch-and-release program. Many people who grew up in Gainesville during the 1950s and 1960s have fond memories of that urban swimming hole. Due to the constant 68-72°F coolness of Floridian springs and the immediate bodies of water fed by them, however, alligators do not find springs to their liking and while the reptiles are encountered in our rivers and swamps, the gators steer clear of the springs-making them all the sweeter for humans. Cave diving is an activity which has really taken off in Florida due to our diversity and quality of underwater caverns and also due to the warm climate. The desire for adventure and to see sights seldom seen drives cave divers to go to elaborate lengths to explore these caverns, often using complex devices and always a fair bit of know-how and experience. The sport has helped the overall state of our springs in that cave divers have contributed data not only on the caverns and springs themselves but have set up a number of Internet sites devoted to the springs, caves, and diving which provide ample information on the springs in general. However, if you drive out to a place like Royal Springs or Little River Springs, you'll come across more teenagers with pickup trucks and off-road four-wheelers than you'll find cave divers, probably. It was in part due to the interest of young people in recreation at springs in Suwannee County that brought the county to create a greenway with a paved path appropriate for mountain or road bikes or even four-wheelers which runs from Ichetucknee Springs State Park through the city of Branford and near Branford Springs up to Little River Springs. A rails-to-trails project, this greenway took an old railroad bed and turned it into an innovative way to connect three parks in the county (Ichetucknee State, Ivey Memorial Park, and Little River Springs) together for off-road travel. Further north on the Suwannee, at White Springs, we find a great example of how Florida's springs historically also played a medicinal role in people's lives. The springs at White Springs, located right beside the Suwannee River, became in the nineteenth century a popular tourist destination after Bryant Sheffiled and his wife Elizabeth touted the healing powers of the waters found there. An enterprising lady named Minnie Mosher Jackson in 1903 built an elaborate concrete structure of four floors to enclose the springs and provide treatment rooms, sunbathing and other health and recreational ventures. This structure still stands and is now part of a local park where the springs and Suwannee River just beyond them can be viewed. As the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park is located in the area and is a popular destination for both fans of history and nature alike, a general interest in biking and the construction of both road and mountain bike trails has grown within the region and the oppurtunitis to bike, or hike, around much of the area are now possible. The legacy of the springs also lives on in the architectural history of downtown White Springs which has, since the rise of the springs as a tourist draw to today, housed a variety of resorts and inns including the Historic Telford Inn which continues to function as a hotel and restaurant. Beyond the recreational attractions of Florida's springs, ample and diverse as these are, the springs play a crucial role in the provision of fresh water to the state as part of one of the most complex aquifer systems in the entire world. The continued stewardship of the springs is essential to ensuring their health for future generations and their utility for us today. Suwannee County maintains a site about its parks, including Branford, Royal, and Little River Springs and the greenway: http://www.suwanneeparksandrecreation.org/Parks.htm Springs Fever is a great website with information and photos of many of north-central Florida's springs: http://www.tfn.net/Springs/ The Suwannee Bicycle Association's website offers a lot of information on trails in and around White Springs in Hamilton County: http://www.suwanneebike.org/#SBO
MIKE WALKER is a writer and journalist based in Gainesville, Florida, who writes mainly about natural history and ecology. He is also an avid mountain biker and skateboarder. All photos in this article by the author. Mike may be reached at: cloudrace@prontomail.com |
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