White Springs, FL

White Springs grew around a mineral spring and a ferry site on the Suwannee River. The settlement was first incorporated as Jackson Springs in 1831, later took the name White Springs, and was incorporated again in 1885 after Georgia merchants Wight and Powell platted lots around the spring. For a time, the water drew resort visitors and a four-story bathhouse stood over the spring. The old springhouse walls still sit beside the river, giving the town a physical link to its first tourist era.

ATTRMichael Rivera / CC BY-SA 4.0

Today the town's map follows U.S. 41, the Suwannee, and two state parks. Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park holds a museum, a 97-bell carillon, campground, cabins, canoe launch, and trails that connect with the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail. Big Shoals State Park brings the river's largest rapids into the same local orbit, while the Florida Folk Festival returns each Memorial Day weekend. White Springs reads as a North Florida river town where a springhouse, a song museum, and paddling routes all grow out of the same stretch of water.