The Natural Beauty of Silver Springs Has Attracted Visitors from Around the World Since the Mid-19Th Century

The natural beauty of Silver Springs has attracted visitors from around the world since the mid-19th century. Silver Springs, one of the largest of Florida’s 33 first-magnitude springs, is made up of a group of springs that occur in the headwaters, coves, and edges of the Silver River. The crystalline water flow of over 550 million gallons a day makes it the largest natural artesian spring in the world! Tourists have flocked to see these naturally crystal-clear waters for centuries. In the 1820s, the springs became a tourist attraction for adventurous visitors who poled their way along the narrow stream through overhanging cypress and Spanish moss. With the invention of the paddlewheel, the Silver River and Springs became a distribution center for Central Florida. Plantations growing vegetables, tobacco & oranges sprang up along the banks. In the late 1870s, Phillip Morrell fixed a piece of glass in the bottom of a rowboat and a new enterprise began. A sunken paddlewheel steamer, multitudes of aquatic wildlife and spring vents can still be easily be seen from the surface. Wildlife includes alligators and turtles, catfish and mullet, and birds such as cormorants, great blue herons, great egrets, ibis, and limpkin. In 1938, in order to enhanced his “Jungle Cruise” ride, the owner, “Colonel Tooey” introduced a colony of non-native Rhesus Macaque monkeys. The local legend that the monkeys were the descendants of monkeys used to enhance the scenery in the filming of the early Tarzan movies is not true. Rhesus monkeys, first introduced in the 1930s, established a population in the park. Silver Springs has also been the site of over 20 major Hollywood films, including the 1930’s series of Tarzan films, the 1960’s “Sea Hunt” television series, several Ester Williams feature films, and most famous, “The Creature From the Black Lagoon” (1954). The diversity of this waterway is among the highest in Florida. OVERNIGHT STAY: Tavares newest Hotel is OPEN for business! With its name, the "Lakeview Inn", you can be sure that every guest has an equally fabulous view of the seaplanes as well as the sunsets on Lake Dora. Each of the 18 rooms has its own private balcony and kitchenette. Lakeview Inn is on the waterfront 123 South Joanna Avenue, Tavares, FL www.lakeviewinntavares.com, 352-219-6162 We’ll start our day trailering to Eustis and put in at the downtown boat ramps. Proceeding across Lake Eustis through Haines Creek, we’ll “lock out” at the Eugene J Burrell Lock & Damn and into Lake Griffin. Proceeding across Lake Griffin to the Ocklawaha River, we’ll cruise the river until we get to the Moss Bluff Lock & Dam. There we enter the Kyle Young Canal (a vestige of the old Cross Florida Barge Canal). A few miles later we enter back into the original Ocklawaha River for a mile until we arrive at the Silver River. We’ll briefly stop at the Ray Wayside Park (where the Silver River flows into the Ocklawaha River) and lunch (be sure to bring a pack lunch). For those of you wanting just a brief boat ride, the boat ramps at Ray Wayside Park is a good place to put in and join us. After lunch a “No Wake” cruise up the 5 miles of the Silver River and into the spring boil past scenery described as one of the most pristine subtropical forest in America. After our tour, we’ll head back the way we came arriving back at the boat ramp around 5pm. For those of you wanting an extra day on the water, we leave the ramps and travel to Tavares through the historic Dora Canal. Tavares has become quite the boating and seaplane destination recently. With a renewed downtown, new boat ramps, a seaplane base, steam train tour, children’s Splash Park and a multitude of on-the-water dining and drinking establishments, you find dinner is served while we watch the sun slowly recline to the west. Sunday, we’ll continue our adventure across Lake Dora, past the town of Mt Dora into Lake Beauclair, past Trimble Park and into the Apopka-Dora Canal. We’ll lock out into Lake Apopka, originally an immaculately clear sportsman’s paradise known as the finest Bass fishing in the world. Later, it was known as the filthiest lake in the State of Florida. Through government efforts and land purchases, portions of the lake are clear water again - the rest of the same quality you’ll find in most Florida lakes. Bass fishing has returned and so have the destinations. We’ll cruise past “Buffalo Island” where free range Bison live at water’s edge then onto Winter Garden where we’ll lunch and take in the local scenery and cruise back home the end of a big day or weekend – your choice for our “Cruise in June.” When: Saturday, June 13 - 9:00am-5:00pm RSVP: June 10,2015 Caravan: Meet @ Seminole Town Center Mall Contact: Toni Gibbs - Cell: 321-363-7688 Email: [email protected] Route: State Road 46 to 46A to 44 to Eustis .

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