Historic White Springs

We went to the Florida Nature and Heritage Tourism Center in White Springs to pick up a "Historic Walking Tour" map this morning. Then we set out to see all the history we could find in this small town on the Suwannee River. The town drew many people during its heyday who came for the medicinal value of the sulfur spring.

Here's a view of the Spring House. It's right on the river, and the spring pool is inside. Now it is just a shell, because the spring quit flowing out here 35 years ago.

One interesting encounter was at the Community Center. We saw a large school bus being painted with flowing blue swooshes and stopped to talk with the painters. They turned out to be Lesley Gamble and Tracy Wyman. They were working with the Hope Summer Enrichment Program. Lesley brought a couple of the students out to talk with us about the bus painting project, which was to promote awareness of the importance of the aquifer. Lesley works with the Springs Eternal Project, which currently has a display on the Urban Aquifer at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. She is an enthusiastic and impassioned advocate for Florida's springs and aquifers, which are threatened and being degraded.

Here's a business sign that caught Ken's attention: the bike looks like it's emerging from the building.

It is so hot and humid that by the time we finished the walking tour, we both needed some air conditioning and lots of fluids. We'll try to get an earlier start tomorrow.