Bartram at Blue Spring

William Bartram, a famed naturalist, artist, and poetic writer, first visited Blue Spring in January 1766. His writing and artwork inspired many, from John James Audubon to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In Travels, he portrayed a creek formed instantly by the spring as wide and deep enough for a sloop to sail into the basin, with perfectly clear water and a great variety of fish visible many feet below the surface. He also observed a pale bluish or pearl-colored coating on submerged inanimate objects, probably algae sustained by water with a different nutrient content than today, and noted that alligators and gar were numerous in the basin. The spring’s condition has since changed, as its water is often impaired by nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorous from human sources such as septic use and lawn fertilization, while water flow paths within the aquifer have also shifted partly because of groundwater withdrawal. Many of the most fascinating passages from Travels concern the St. Johns River region of Florida, and Bartram created in West Volusia County an illustration that became the first image of an alligator seen by many Europeans.

Florida · United States