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Silver Glen Springs
In short
One of the cleanest and most gorgeous spring areas in Florida is Silver Glen Springs. This is not just a beloved recreation area but a lot more: an archaeological site, ecosystem and entrance into an exciting cave.
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In detail
Description of Silver Glen Springs
Silver Glen Springs consist of two major springs: the main – Silver Glen Spring and the smaller Natural Well, that is located in the southwest corner of pool, some 35 m from the main vent.
The spring pool with both vents has a diameter of some 55-60 m. Both springs form some 61 m wide and 1.2 km long river that falls into Lake George.
The tremendous force of both spring vents creates a visible bulges on the water surface. The force of waters prevents swimmers to fly close to the main vent – but it is fun to try this!
The main spring vent is 5.5 m deep but Natural Well is 12.2 m deep and up to 4.5 m wide. Natural Well is not available to general visitors of the site.
From the springs comes unusually clean, lucid water with a constant temperature of 23° C.
The bottom of the spring pool is sandy, possibly due to high use by swimmers. Many people inadvertently remove the plants, thinking that this should be done to prevent the danger to swimmers. Please, don’t!
Spring water still is clean – this is one of the cleanest springs in Florida – another very clean spring is the gorgeous Alexander Spring. This is a potential site for manatee wintering but the animals are not frequently seen there due to human activities. More frequently they can be seen in the spring run a bit away from springs, especially during the winter. Almost always visitors can enjoy diverse fish in this unbelievably lucid water.
Silver Glen Springs is a popular recreation site. Visitors should pay admission fee, they can swim, rent boats, there are trails in the natural forest around the springs.
Frequently this beautiful spring gets crowded and many visitors recommend to visit it on weekdays, earlier in the morning.
Silver Glen Springs Cave
Exploration of Silver Glen Springs Cave started in 1989 (2.). The length of this underwater cave is 600 m. This is very challenging, dangerous cave with strong currents, narrow and winding. Cave contains and enormous and gorgeous cave room – Assum Pit, that is 15 m high, 49 m long and 34 m wide.
Natural Well serves as one more entrance in the cave. From this spring towards the main cave goes so called White Tunnel. This is a gorgeous cave passage that is covered with boiling sand that is constantly stirred by the upcoming water.
Archaeological monument and history
Animals love this spring and already 10 thousand years ago prehistoric hunters frequently hunted there, leaving stone tools.
Some 5,600 years ago more sedentary groups of people settled around the spring. Throughout the numerous generations of these people enormous heaps of empty shells and other garbage – middens – accrued near their settlements. There are sand mounds with burials as well.
William Bartram was the first European who described springs in 1774.
The enormous shell middens surrounded the spring pool as an amphitheater. Even larger, up to 8 m high shell mounds were located to the south from spring run. Unfortunately, most of middens were taken away for road construction during the 1930ies – 1940ies.
References
- Silver Glen Springs Near Astor, FL – 02236160, USGS. Accessed on September 17, 2023.
- History, Silver Glen Springs, Springs Eternal Project. Accessed on September 20, 2023.
Linked articles
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