Silver Springs is a group of artesian springs feeding the Silver River in Marion County, and it is the largest artesian spring in the world. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971, and it is the site of the oldest commercial tourist attraction in Florida.
The glass-bottom boats are the reason. They have run here in one form or another since 1878, which makes them older than most of the towns around them. Tourists first came up the St Johns and Silver rivers by steamboat in the late nineteenth century, and the springs passed through a succession of owners, each adding rides and attractions.
One of those additions got away. A planned attraction introduced a group of rhesus macaques to an island in the Silver River. The monkeys escaped almost immediately, formed free-ranging troops, and their descendants are still living wild in the area today.
Hollywood arrived in 1916 and kept coming back. Tarzan Finds a Son was shot here in 1939, along with five more Tarzan pictures, and so was Revenge of the Creature, the sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon. The clarity of the water is what made it filmable: you can shoot through it.
The first thorough scientific studies of the springs were not carried out until the 1990s, which is a long gap for somewhere that had been a commercial attraction for over a century.
It was long privately owned and for a period operated as the Silver Springs Nature Theme Park. It is now a Florida state park, run by the Department of Environmental Protection.
If you go, go by boat. Swimming is not permitted at Silver Springs and fishing is prohibited inside the park; you see the water from the glass-bottom boats, which leave every 15 to 20 minutes and often sell out, or from a kayak or a canoe.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
