Ichetucknee Springs

 

 

Some people are speechless when they see Ichetucknee for the first time. Others gasp and smile and whisper reverently and make lyrical sounding remarks in languages I don’t understand.

French people say “Sacre bleu!” I’ve never actually heard them. In fact, I don’t even know if it’s the right context. It just seems like something they should say. What blue thing could possibly be more suited to an exclamation that means, “sacred blue” than a perpetually flowing fountain of cool, cobalt-blue water where monks and ministers and seekers of all sort have come for thousands of years to nurture their spirituality?

If I were a French-Floridian, I would say it every time I came here; that or, “aux, my god!”

 

For another glimpse, here’s Ichetucknee Dreams, by filmmaker Eric Flagg. His latest video, Following the Ichetucknee (2014), is a meditation on land use and how it affects the river and springs.

 

Click here for an excellent Tour of the Ichetucknee River Trace led by Jim Stevenson, Chief Biologist for the Florida State Park System for 20 years and former Chairman of the Florida Springs Task Force.