The
Ichetucknee River is a spring-fed, pristine river in
North Central FloridaNorth Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. It comprises the north-central part of the state and encompasses Alachua, Bradford, Columbia, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Marion, Putnam, Suwannee and Union counties. The region's principal cities include Gainesville,...
. The entire of the river average wide, deep and lie within the boundaries of the
Ichetucknee Springs State ParkIchetucknee Springs State Park is a 2,241 acre Florida State Park located four miles northwest of Fort White off State Road 47 and State Road 238. It centers around the six mile long Ichetucknee River, which flows through shaded hammocks and wetlands into the Santa Fe River. The Park contains...
.
The name is derived from a
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
language, possibly
CreekThe Creek language, also known as Muskogee or Muscogee , is a Muskogean language spoken by the Muscogee Nation, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Kialegee Tribal Town, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and other Muskogean peoples.-Phonology:The phonology of Creek consists of...
wa (
water),
echas (
beaver), and
toka or
tomeka (
because of, or
caused by), meaning "beaver pond" (beaver remains are common in the riverbed).
The
Ichetucknee River is a spring-fed, pristine river in
North Central FloridaNorth Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. It comprises the north-central part of the state and encompasses Alachua, Bradford, Columbia, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Marion, Putnam, Suwannee and Union counties. The region's principal cities include Gainesville,...
. The entire of the river average wide, deep and lie within the boundaries of the
Ichetucknee Springs State ParkIchetucknee Springs State Park is a 2,241 acre Florida State Park located four miles northwest of Fort White off State Road 47 and State Road 238. It centers around the six mile long Ichetucknee River, which flows through shaded hammocks and wetlands into the Santa Fe River. The Park contains...
.
The name is derived from a
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
language, possibly
CreekThe Creek language, also known as Muskogee or Muscogee , is a Muskogean language spoken by the Muscogee Nation, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Kialegee Tribal Town, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and other Muskogean peoples.-Phonology:The phonology of Creek consists of...
wa (
water),
echas (
beaver), and
toka or
tomeka (
because of, or
caused by), meaning "beaver pond" (beaver remains are common in the riverbed). A
HitchitiThe Hitchiti were a Muskogean tribe formerly residing chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, 4 miles below Chiaha, and possessing a narrow strip of good land bordering on the river, in west Georgia...
informant to anthropologist
John R. SwantonJohn Reed Swanton was an American anthropologist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States....
pronounced the name "
Oetcotukni", and translated it as "
where there is a pond of water", likely referring to a defunct beaver pond.
The water in the river is crystal-clear and is 72 °
FFahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Today, the scale has been replaced by the Celsius scale in most countries; it is still in use for non-scientific purposes in the United States and a few other nations, such as...
(22 °
CCelsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
) year-round. There are nine named springs within the Ichetucknee Springs group with an average total flow of 233 million gallons per day. The group includes: Ichetucknee Springs, Cedar Head Spring, Blue Hole Spring, Roaring Springs, Singing Springs, Boiling Spring, Grassy Hole Springs, Mill Pond Spring, and Coffee Spring. The Ichetucknee is a tributary of the Santa Fe River, which in turn flows into the
Suwannee RiverThe Suwannee River is a major river of southern Georgia and northern Florida in the United States. It is a wild blackwater river, about 266 miles long.-Geography:...
before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico.
The park restricts launch and end points along the river, permitting a tube/raft excursion of 1.5 or 3 hours. A variety of commercial vendors, located outside the entrance to the park, rent tubes and rafts for a modest fee.
Park wildlife includes:
OtterOtters are semi-aquatic fish-eating mammals. The otter subfamily Lutrinae forms part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, polecats, badgers, as well as others. With thirteen species in seven genera, otters have an almost worldwide distribution...
,
beaverThe beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, Castor canadensis and Castor fiber . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
,
turtleTurtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
,
ibisThe ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae. They all have long down curved bills, and usually feed as a group, probing mud for food items, usually crustaceans...
,
wood storkThe Wood Stork is a large American wading bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. It was formerly called the "Wood Ibis", though it is not really an ibis....
,
egretAn egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...
,
great blue heronThe Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...
,
cormorantThe bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...
,
anhingaThe Anhinga , sometimes called Snakebird, Darter, American Darter, or Water Turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas...
,
kingfisherKingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species being found in the Old World and Australia...
,
limpkinThe Limpkin , Aramus guarauna, is a bird that looks like a large rail but is skeletally closer to cranes. It is found mostly in wetlands in warm parts of the Americas, where it feeds primarily on apple snails of the genus Pomacea...
, wild
turkeyA turkey is either of two living species of large birds in the genus Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey, is native to the forests of North America...
,
wood duckThe Wood Duck or Carolina Duck is a medium-sized perching duck. A typical adult is about 19 inches in length with an average wingspan of 29 inches. This is about three-quarters of the length of an adult Mallard. It shares its genus with the Asian Mandarin Duck.The adult male has distinctive...
,
white-tailed deerThe white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer, or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and in South America as far south as Peru...
,
raccoonProcyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most widespread species, the Common Raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
,
armadilloArmadillos are small placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. The Dasypodidae are the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths...
, hogs, water snakes and juvenile alligators. The fish are primarily bream, bluegill, largemouth bass, alligator gar, mullet and catfish.
ManateeManatees are large, fully aquatic marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. They are noted for their rather friendly nature, large size and paddle-like flippers. The name manatí comes from the Taíno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean, meaning "breast"...
s have been seen in the winter months.
History
The Spanish
Fig Springs mission siteThe Fig Springs mission site is an archaeological site in Ichetucknee Springs State Park, in Columbia County, Florida. It has been identified as the site of a Spanish mission from the first half of the 17th century....
has been identified from the 17th century in the park. Plans to reconstruct the mission and open it to the public as an interpretational site were dropped. The area was abandoned in the mid 1800s due to war, but was later held by American settlers.
Though mostly unknown, the area was enjoyed by
University of FloridaThe University of Florida is a public land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant major research university located on a campus located in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States. The university traces its origins to 1853, and has continuously operated on its present Gainesville campus since the fall...
student during the 1960s, which led to litter and other problems.
The State of Florida purchased the property in 1970 and began a cleanup and restoration project. It was declared a
National Natural LandmarkThe National Natural Landmark program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the United States' natural history. It is the only natural areas program of national scope that identifies and recognizes the best examples of biological and geological features in both...
in 1972, and became a tourist attraction.
Current threats
In the early 1990s, the springs were showing signs of an even more disturbing degradation: a progressive decline in water quality. The
Florida Department of Environmental ProtectionThe Florida Department of Environmental Protection is the Florida government agency charged with environmental protection.-History:...
commissioned studies which showed that nutrient levels were steadily increasing. Additionally, some swimmers and tubers began to report strange skin rashes, possibly caused by algae fed by nutrients introduced into the aquifer. Also the building of a cement plant nearbye is threatning to disrupt the eco-system.
External links