Summary of Features Scale -5th magnitude  Scenery - poor  How Pristine? - impounded into pools, fenced, near buildings  Swimming - no  Protection - unknown, park along run  Crowds - none  Access - only for view from distance  Facilities - none  Safety - fair  Scuba - no

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For maps, latitude/longitude data, driving directions, satellite imagery, and topographic representations as well as weather conditions at this spring, go to Greg Johnson's informative "Florida Springs Database" web site at the following address:  http://www.ThisWaytothe.Net/springs/floridasprings.htm#Florida

Spring Description
The spring is set into a hillside or ravine and forms a semicircular pool about 10 feet in diameter. Water flows form small limestone openings at a depth of about 6 feet. Water in the spring is clear and clean and there is a mild boil. The bottom is sandy and rocky. The spring and the first 150 feet of its run are surrounded by a concrete retaining wall that forms three connected and successive (i.e., end-to-end) pools. The walls and gates between the pools serve to raise the level of the water high enough for swimming. The first pool - the one surrounding the spring itself - is bell-shaped and about 18 feet long. The second pool has six sides but is roughly rectangular and has dimensions of about 25 by 65 feet. The third pool is a rectangle and is about 25 by 50 feet. This third pool has a diving board and was clearly used as a pool. The second pool may have been used as a children’s wading area.

Water in the second and third pools is stagnant, green in color, and is not clear. Water flows from an unseen pipe or other opening in the third pool into the original run, which then flows through a small park area and into Hogtown Creek. The Elks building is directly adjacent to the spring and pools on one side. There is an apartment complex about 100 feet away from the spring on the other side, but the intervening area is thickly wooded and lush.

Use/Access

• It is apparent that the spring was impounded for swimming. The water may have also been used for drinking at one time. The pool does not appear to have been used for swimming for many years and is wildly overgrown and unkempt.
• According to an article in Gainesville Magazine, the Elk's Club now stocks the pool with bass for children to catch (Kirkland, 2004).
• There is a fence around the spring, but paths around the main spring suggest is it visited and used for wading by elements from the local population. The site is not posted, but is clearly private property.
• The run area just beyond the manmade pools is now the Alfred A. Ring City Park and includes a short trail and encompasses the run from the spring to where it flows into Hogtown Creek.

Personal Impressions
The spring is a very unusual sight, hidden behind the old Elks Lodge in the middle of a developed neighborhood.

Nearby Springs

• Bouleware Spring
• Poe Spring
• Allen Spring
• Hornsby Spring
• Columbia Spring
• Magnesia Spring
• Orange Spring
• Silver Springs