Florida Waterways
“Silver River”
The five-mile-long Silver River that feeds into the Ocklawaha River in Marion County, Florida, is best known for leading to the Silver Springs State Park. Countless generations have visited the park, taken rides on its glass-bottom boats and peered down into the crystal-clear river to see a wide variety of fish and sea grasses beneath the surface.
The spring-fed river that traces its source to a large spring near the park, probably takes its name from its silvery look. The main spring there pours over 500 million gallons of water into the river each day, as it flows to the west. The river is one of the most pristine in North Florida, one that has relatively little pollution and human interference.
Visitors traveling on the glass-bottom boats may see rhesus monkeys along the way. Unlike what some have said, that the monkeys were released into the wild from the filming of Tarzan movies, the animals were actually released around 1938 by a tour-boat operator, to add some kind of authentic jungle-like flavor to the tour. The monkeys did not come from any Tarzan film, since the only Tarzan movie filmed there was “Tarzan Finds a Son!” (1939) and it had no rhesus monkeys. Note: the monkeys are aggressive and should not be fed.
Visitors can see many forms of wildlife, along, and in the river, including gators, turtles, ospreys, and anhingas. For first-time visitors to our beautiful part of the state, the Silver River offers a good view into the watery splendor of what Florida must have looked like for thousands of years. And guides on the tour boats can point out remains of the river steamer “Metamora” that sank in the river in 1903.
Archaeologists tell us that the river used to be the home of the Timucua Indians, who must have fished its waters and hunted the nearby forest. Europeans arrived in the first half of the nineteenth century, built Fort King nearby in 1827, and slowly drove the Indians south to the Everglades or west to Indian Territory.
Steamboats like the one pictured here plied the waters of the Silver River in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and brought many tourists to Silver Springs in what was probably the state’s first tourist attraction. As the modern photos here by photographers Anoldent and Ebyabe show, the river has been well preserved from development and pollution.
The river is one of the “Outstanding Florida Waters” that are protected under state law as “worthy of special protection because of their natural attributes.” Those activities that would decrease the water quality of the river are not allowed.
The Silver River State Park has over five thousand acres of mostly undeveloped land, but has facilities to launch kayaks and small boats. Swimmers should be careful, of course, for alligators in the river.
By Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy, the author of “North Florida Waterways” 2013 – (available at amazon.com), can be reached at ceyhankevin@gmail.com.