Blue Spring State Park, Natural reserve in Orange City, Florida.
Blue Spring State Park is a natural reserve in Orange City, Florida, protecting a large spring that releases crystal-clear water at a steady rate year-round. The spring flows through a narrow channel into the St Johns River, creating a sheltered waterway bordered by dense hammocks and tall palms.
A wooden house built in 1872 by the Thursby family near the water served as a landing for steamboats carrying passengers and citrus along the river. The state of Florida acquired the property decades later and opened it as a public park to protect the spring and surrounding forest.
The park preserves indigenous artifacts and settlement traces from the Timucuan people who inhabited the area for thousands of years before European contact.
The park offers canoe rentals and guided tours on the river, plus walking trails through the forest and a campground with spaces for tents and recreational vehicles. Swimming is allowed only outside winter months when manatees are not present in the water.
The spring serves as a winter shelter for hundreds of manatees that arrive when river temperatures drop below the constant warmth of the source water. Visitors can watch the animals from wooden boardwalks built over the spring basin.
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