Salt Springs contains no salt however for those that swim here often say the water has a mild salt taste. The taste comes from a variety of rare minerals in the water. The cold spring has water that flows at a rate of 53 million gallons per day. According to the ancient and modern folklore the water here was said to have some medicinal value. 

The Indians who inhabited the area often called this the Medicine Lodge and some of those native Americans traveled as far as the Carolina's just to bathe and drink from its five boils. They said each boil had a cure for a different ailment. At one time the oak trees created a terrace from the roots leading down into the springs. Because the tree cover was so heavy it actually hid the springs from the white man. 

A few hundred years ago the King of Spain granted ownership of the property to the Hernandez family. They did not want the gift which was a five mile run along with the mystical spring. Because they had no interest in it the area became very underdeveloped until the late 1800s when brothers Columbus and Walter Townsend from GA used the area for turpentine shipping. They would export it down the Salt Run and to a Naval Store in Jacksonville. The large house near the head of the springs was a summer home for the Townsend family. The house was moved from the nearby Lake Kerr and was abandoned after the big freeze. Those who are updated we have investigated the Ghost Town called Kerr City which is on that lake.

Columbus bought Walter's interest and laid claim to the Hernandez Grant. In the late 1920's he sold all the property except the abandoned house to the Ray family in Ocala.  Around that time many Florida attractions came to be accept for Salt Springs. Although Teddy Roosevelt had set aside the vast surrounding scrub land in 1908 called Ocala National Forest. The road leading to the springs was extremely rough so very few people went back here for a swim. The road today of course is still dirt but its much broader and level which we hiked down to get to the springs. 

Some people came to the springs to be healed while others enjoyed the cool water in the Florida heat. Eventually people started building small shelters and camped out here. Dear to Everyone's heart was the screened shack at the head of the spring which was a meeting place all would gather at during the night, talk, and enjoy the marvels of a juke box. That tradition lasted so long it became a tradition to the area. A rare photograph shows Marjorie Rawlings sitting on the counter listening to the Juke Box. She is also the one who wrote the The Yearling which we are about to go into on our next destination. Stories even today are passed around about the old juke box as fishermen, hunters, hikers, campers etc gather around together.

When the highway in the 1960s was built it allowed many tourist to visit the area. The private lands nearby were subdivided and sold for campsites that eventually became home sites. In 1979 the US Government bought the springs and 10,000 acres that were given to Hernandez in that land grant that the Ray family bought for 12 million dollars. At this point it was designed to be a recreational hot spot.

Some say the springs are a fountain of youth and that is true the minerals here are very rare and aging can be slowed down if your skin is properly treated with them. These minerals that are in the spring cannot be found anywhere in the country making Salt Springs a hidden Jewel.

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Rick-AngelOfThyNight