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Springs Fever: A Field & Recreation Guide to 500 Florida Springs.
3rd Edition by Joe Follman and Richard Buchanan

• Home
• Table of Contents
• Central Florida Panhandle
• Springs Near Tallahassee
• Taylor County
• Withlacoochee River
• Suwannee River
• SantaFe River
• Ichetucknee River
• Ocala National Forest
• Central Gulf Coast
• Other Central Florida
• Northeast FL
• Other Natural Features
• Email us
• Native American

Springs Fever: A Field & Recreation Guide to 500 Florida Springs. 3rd Edition by Joe Follman and Richard Buchanan

Columbia Spring

Columbia County

Directions

From downtown High Springs drive about two miles north on U.S. 41/441 to bridge over the Santa Fe River.  The boat ramp to the river is on theNW side of the bridge.  Put in and go downriver about ¼ mile to the spring run on the right.

Link to additional directions and a map

Spring Description

The spring forms a semi-circular pool over 150 feet wide with a run of nearly equal width that flows about 500 feet to the Santa Fe River.  Water was flowing strongly from the spring on date of visit, forming a large boil area.  The water was not very clear and may include non-filtered water from the main river as well as "spring" water.  Limestone was visible on the bottom in the shallow areas, and some algae is evident.  The land around the spring is low, swampy, and heavily forested.  There is a house on land above the spring to the east.

According to Carter & Pearce (1985, p. 139) a large sink in the bed of the Santa Fe River just outside of the Columbia Spring run swallows part of the river.  The water rises again a few hundred yards downstream.

Use/Access

• No landfall can be made on the private property surrounding the spring, but it is only a five-minute paddle from the U.S. 41/441 bridge and even less from the canoe livery at the bridge's SW end.
• In time of low water, paddling upriver can be difficult due to shoals and aquatic vegetation.
• During the 1920s and '30s, there was a hotel directly across the Santa Fe River from Columbia Spring on the Alachua County side (Hornsby &Ceryak, 1998, p. 26).

Local Springiana

Personal Impressions

The authors suspect that, as with Treehouse Spring upriver, the water flowing from Columbia Spring contains water from the Santa Fe River and is, in effect, another river rise.  Rosenau et al., reference testing of the water in this spring as showing it contained both river water and water directly from the Floridan aquifer (1977, pp. 105-106).

Nearby Springs

• COL428981
• Darby Spring
• Hornsby Spring
• Santa Fe Spring
• Santa Fe River Rise Spring

Other Nearby Natural Features

• Ichetucknee Springs State Park
• O'Leno State Park
• San Felasco Hammock State Preserve
• Devil's Millhopper State Geologic Site
• River Rise State Preserve
• Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park