Our Sacred Springs
From MFLs to Ibi:
A return to our watery roots
by Rick Kilby
| I WAS INTRODUCED to the word “ibi” by the late writer Bill Belleville, who wrote that this Timucuan word encapsulated water in every form, “from river to ocean, rain to dew.”i The Timucuan realm stretched over much of the northern part of the Florida peninsula and dialects of the Timucuan language united diverse groups with separate cultural traditions.
MFLs: the minimum flows or minimum water levels, adopted by Water Management Districts.
Ibi: a Timucuan word generally referring to water.
When Hernando de Soto ventured across the Santa Fe River in 1539, he encountered a Timucuan village called Aguacaleyquen. De Soto committed heinous deeds against the native people on his ill-fated quest for gold including capturing the chief of the village and his daughter as hostages. While historian Michael Gannon notes that Florida’s native people “gave as good as they got,” ambushing de Soto’s men with deadly arrows, the conflict with the Spanish represents the collision of differing paradigms. The cultures that lived in Florida before the Europeans, for the most part, subsisted on the resources available to them in nature, and their spiritual beliefs reflected that. Bill Belleville wrote that the Timucua had a reverence for water, as they did for all of nature and “their deities were woven into it, not separate from it.”
Perhaps ancient cultures throughout history were right about water’s spiritual nature. Water is essential for life on this planet and it makes up to 60% of the human body. It could be argued that water is life. Today, these essential waters need us to help heal them.
Rick Kilby’s first book, Finding the Fountain of Youth, was published in 2013 and won a Florida Book Award in the Visual Arts category. His second book, Florida’s Healing Waters, was published in 2020 and won a Florida Book Award in Nonfiction as well as the Stetson Kennedy Award from the Florida Historical Society.
By comparison, the Europeans who came to Florida were in a competitive race to control New World resources before other nation states could. A useful way of looking at these two points of view can be found in The Florida Reader by Rollins College professors Jack Lane and Maurice O’Sullivan. They argue that Florida has the longest literary tradition in North America and that the narratives of Florida represent two different perspectives that both originate in the story of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis in the Bible. The first story, from Genesis 1:1-2:41, describes Eden as a place where man surrenders to nature and is “restored and renewed without significant effort.” It is the land of milk and honey. This point of view represents connection to nature and can be seen in the romantic prose of novelists who visited the state and the writings of energized environmentalists. It is a narrative of unity and stewardship with nature. In this perspective, Florida’s indigenous people were benevolent stewards of their environment and their spirituality was derived from the natural world around them. Some historians point out that it has become fashionable to romanticize indigenous peoples’ connection to the nature, but there can be little doubt that they perceived the world much differently from the Europeans who would come to claim Florida.
The second creation story, from Genesis 2:4b-2:25, requires man to act upon nature and establish “a state of harmony not only with the land but with himself.” This perspective represents man taking dominion over nature. In 1565, Spaniard Pedro Menéndez wrote to his King, Philip II, that Florida would provide “many riches and it will be worth more to Spain than New Spain (Mexico) and even Peru.” The Spaniards sought to utilize natural resources to suit the needs of man, with little regard for the impact it could have on the environment or the indigenous people. In the 16th century Spanish point of view, their conquest was justified because Native Americans “had no religion.”ii
These two narrative traditions represent different worldviews, both of which have been present in the state since the arrival of the first Europeans. The European “conquest” perspective has dominated the way the state’s natural resources such as water have been utilized. Ironically, the idea of Florida as a paradise persists in marketing the state and that concept can be seen throughout the state’s history, from the myth of the Fountain of Youth to the current messaging at VisitFlorida.com.
The reality, however, is that Florida—our Garden of Eden—has been fouled by lousy gardeners. We have been poor stewards of this earthly paradise, and our state’s waters have suffered greatly. This is the result of an imbalance in our attitude toward the environment, over 500 years of seeking to exert our will over nature. In order to restore the environment of the state, I suggest we need to get more people to invest in the notion that the natural wonders of Florida truly are a paradise. And we need to see water as an essential ingredient of life, worthy of protection, worthy of perhaps even worship. We need more “ibi” consciousness and less concentration on MFLs, or Minimum Flows and Levels, the state’s solution for maintaining what was once a wealth of clean water.
Our Sacred Springs
“Religious and everyday life were intimately entwined; chiefs and native leaders were responsible for seeing that the proper community ceremonies and were carried out. But even so, individuals probably performed many rituals themselves. The Timucua Indians and their pre-Columbian ancestors sought to live in harmony with nature and the supernatural.” – Jerald T. Milanich
According to archeologist Jerald T. Milanich, people have been in Florida for at least 12,000 years, hunting animals now long extinct. Evidence for this lengthy existence can be found in the discoveries of manmade objects found in the Ichetucknee River such as a spearpoint made from a mammoth tusk found in the 1920s. We identify the people of that time as Paleoindians and they occupied the state during an arid period when the Ichetucknee was little more than “limestone catchment basins or watering holes.”iii These locations attracted animals, which in turn brought people, who hunted and butchered the animals, leaving evidence of their existence in what is now the bottom of the riverbed.
Archeologist Jason O’Donoughue writes that for the indigenous people who came later, springs became much more than hunting and watering holes, stating that that springs were “depended upon to provide places of coalescence and community building.”iv There is archeological evidence of structures built for religious ceremonies near springs including the “largest native gathering site in the prehistoric southeast” at Silver Glen Springs in the Ocala National Forest.v
More contemporary native people, including the Seminoles, also have an oral tradition that tells of springs being so sacred that they were exempt from any type of inter-tribal conflict. They were considered to be oases of peace.
From Magic to Minerals
“During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the waters of many European spas were meticulously studied and evaluated by chemists, and physicians developed specific protocols for patients with a variety of health disorders.” –Nathaniel Altman, Healing Springs: The Ultimate Guide to Taking the Waters
Beyond Florida, ancient cultures throughout the world believed in the healing power of water from springs. Creation myths evolved from watery origins from the “face of the waters” in Genesis to the watery pre-creation of ancient Egypt called “Nu” or “Nun.”vi
Gods and goddesses were believed to inhabit oceans and springs and tributes to these divine entities were thrown into sacred waters at places such as the Roman Baths in Bath, England, where the goddess Minerva Sulis offered healing to those deemed worthy.
Later in the Middle Ages, sacred wells were associated with certain Christian saints making the water holy and giving it healing qualities. From this notion of sacred, magical waters the myth of the Fountain of Youth evolved in societies across the globe. By the time Ponce de León came ashore in Florida near Easter of 1513, the idea of a font of immortality was commonplace. The Spaniard’s famous quest was fiction, embellished by successive generations of promoters to boost the idea that the Land of Flowers was indeed a magical place. As a result, almost every spring in the state that was developed commercially claimed to be The Fountain of Youth sought by the aging Spaniard.
During the Scientific revolution and the age of enlightenment that followed, water was still perceived as having the ability to heal, but the notion of sacredness was dropped. The healing power was believed to be due to the presence of minerals and chemical elements in the water. “As the spirits were neglected, faith went out and doctors came in,” writes Alev Lytle Croutier in Taking the Waters.vii Based on new scientific beliefs, a new bathing tradition emerged in Europe, sometimes building on the site of ancient Roman baths in places such as the town of Spa in Belgium. We still use the word “spa” today to indicate a location with water therapies and other healing modalities.
In the United States, resorts such as Warm Springs in Virginia and Saratoga Springs in New York were extremely well known in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was just a matter of time before similar resorts became popular in Florida. Famous spring-based spas in the Sunshine State included Green Cove Springs, White Sulphur Springs, and Suwannee Springs. At least two dozen spring-based spas opened around the state using the mineral water that flowed up from the aquifer for bathing and drinking. Most of these sites were small third magnitude springs with a noticeable sulphur smell, and some spa locations may have utilized water from manmade wells.
Florida water became such a well-known brand that mineral water from the state was bottled and sold throughout the nation—and it still is today. The fact that our water has been bottled and shipped for 150 years and that mineral springs were seen as opportunities for the development of resort hotels show that water was seen as a commodity like oil or timber—a product for exploitation rather than a sacred element, essential for human life.
Nature’s Theme Parks
“It took a bit more ingenuity, money, creativity, and sometimes good old-fashioned hucksterism to turn a natural spring into a tourist attraction.” – Tim Hollis, Glass Bottom Boats & Mermaid Tales: Florida’s Tourist Springs
In the nineteenth century, many of the visitors who came to Florida in winter entered the state from Jacksonville and traveled down the St. Johns River into the interior of the state. A must-see during that era was Silver Springs. Few of these wealthy tourists left without experiencing a riverboat ride up the Ocklawaha River to see what poet Sidney Lanier described as an “enormous fluid jewel.”viii Silver Springs is perhaps the earliest example of another way Florida’s springs were utilized—as tourist attractions.
By the twentieth century visitors to the state no longer depended upon trains and steamboats to shuttle them to destinations and entrepreneurs sought ways to exploit the natural beauty of springs to encourage automobile travelers to stop at spring-based roadside attractions. Homosassa Springs was billed as “Nature’s Giant Fishbowl.” Weeki Wachee became the “Spring of Live Mermaids.” Wakulla advertised “Henry the Pole Vaulting Fish” and Rainbow had giant leaf-shaped monorails that traveled through an aviary stocked with colorful birds. Well before the arrival of Disney World in 1971, a handful of Florida’s springs were complete theme parks, including the granddaddy of them all, Silver Springs.
Farmsteads and Homesites
“Wekiwa Springs is being developed sanely, soundly and permanently. Streets and sidewalks are being laid, land is being cleared, landscaping in progress. Each property will be supplied with electricity and Wekiwa Springs water.” Orlando Sentinel, December 8, 1925
At a few springs, early pioneers pooled spring basins in order to use the flow of the water to turn waterwheels at mills–most notably at Volusia County’s De Leon Springs, which was the site of a plantation utilizing enslaved labor. Plantation owner Zephaniah Kingsley’s Springfield settlement in North Florida was also known to include a spring with a waterwheel that provided the power for three cotton gins. In 1885, the Silver Springs Park Land Company produced a brochure with agricultural information for growing citrus and other crops including peaches, pears, and potatoes near the famed Marion County spring.
Eventually Florida’s economy evolved from agrarian to tourism/development. By the end of the beginning of the twentieth century the land surrounding springs was more valuable as a real estate commodity than farm acreage, although growing your own citrus was a big selling point. In 1876, the Florida Improvement and Winter Home Company used the “Roaring Magnetic Spring” as an attraction for winter visitors considering buying real estate in Orange Park. In 1883, the Altamonte Land Hotel and Navigation Company built a hotel near a spring on Lake Adelaide for northerners considering purchasing a lot in Altamonte Springs.
During Florida’s real estate boom in the 1920s, the same De Leon Springs—where today a reproduction of the original millwheel spins next to a pancake house—was billed as the “Fountain of Youth and Profit” by offering lots 20% larger than traditional Florida offerings. Wekiwa Springs promoters boasted of the opportunity to buy property at a picturesque spot “endowed with the beauties of the tropics” with full access to the “mystery water” favored by the Indians who “traveled for miles” to gain benefit from it. Today both De Leon Springs and Wekiwa Springs are state parks, but the latter is surrounded by housing developments. In fact, there are at least two developments in the state called “The Springs” featuring home sites centered around historic springs.
Protecting Florida’s Water Today
“Scientists study each unique water system, assess the water resource values associated with the system (such as kayaking, fishing or manatee passage), and identify the minimum flow or level that must be maintained to protect those resource values.” – Florida Department of Environmental Protection website
The State’s Department of Environmental Protection acknowledges that the springs of our state have “intrinsic economic, ecological and aesthetic value.” Accordingly, the state assesses the “water resource value” of each spring and scientists determine the minimum flow and level (MFL) for each water body. If the volume of water should fall below the determined MFL, water management districts are “required to implement a recovery or prevention strategy to ensure the MFL is maintained over the long-term.”ix
The Howard T. Odum Florida Spring Institute asserts, however, that most of the state’s springs “suffer from reduced flows and water pollution as a result of increased urban, commercial, and intensive agricultural development” and that State regulations codified to preserve the springs are “not adequate.”x Bob Knight, Executive Director of the Institute, writes “Florida’s springs preservation efforts are not sufficient to achieve the goal of springs restoration and protection” and that in order to properly protect our springs, FDEP needs to change the way they enforce the laws governing the state’s water resources.xi To me, it is clear that state government agencies as they currently exist do not have the will to correct the condition of our state’s springs.
Restoring the Sacred
“The true answers for today’s water crisis have roots that reach back to the creative source of our physical and spiritual realities – the same source that supports and maintains our present earthly thinking existence each passing second.” – William E. Marks, The Holy Order of Water
Throughout Florida’s history, springs and the land surrounding them have been shaped and altered to fit the desires of developers. Today the commodification of natural resources has led to the degradation of historical and natural sites throughout the state. Most of the springs in Florida are impaired. But we can help make difference by altering our behavior.
From the beginning of human history, people have found magic in water emerging from the depths of the earth, propelled into the light by unseen forces. The crystal-clear water was seen as having been sent from divine beings offering healings and blessings to those who partook in bathing or drinking it. Later, spring water laced with minerals were thought to possess the chemical elements necessary to heal the body. Then the natural awe and wonder of our larger springs were embellished into gaudy roadside attractions. Today, many are protected as county and state parks, but has too much damage already been done?
Perhaps ancient cultures throughout history were right about water’s spiritual nature. Water is essential for life on this planet and it makes up to 60% of the human body. It could be argued that water is life. Today, these essential waters need us to help heal them.
If we can believe water is a sacred substance, imbued with unseen potential for life, might we be better stewards? Perhaps if we returned to the consciousness of treating this magical element of life with awe or wonder instead of seeing it as 12 ounces of liquid stuffed into a disposable plastic bottle, we might change things for the better. Shift happens and we need to shift the way we think about water. Lessons from the past can show us the way.
Citations
i…….River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida’s St. Johns River, Bill Belleville, p. 72
ii……Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, Matthew Restall, p. 103
iii…..Florida’s Indians from Ancient Times to Present, Jerald T. Milanich, p. 5
iv…..Water from Stone, Jason O’Donoughue, p.184
v……From interpretive marker at the Matheson History Museum
vi…..https://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins/primordial-waters-0012363
vii…Taking the Waters, Alev Lytle Croutier, p. 111
viii..Florida: Its Climate, Scenery, and History, Sidney Lanier, p.38
ix….https://floridadep.gov/water-policy/water-policy/content/minimum-flows-and-minimum-water-levels-and-reservations
x…..Florida Springs Restoration and Preservation Efforts: Coordinating a Collaborative Adaptive Approach, 2019, accessed here: https://floridaspringsinstitute.org/policy-work/
xi….https://floridaspringsinstitute.org/a-new-years-resolution-for-floridas-springs/
Rick Kilby’s first book, Finding the Fountain of Youth, was published in 2013 and won a Florida Book Award in the Visual Arts category. His second book, Florida’s Healing Waters, was published in Fall 2020 by the University Press of Florida.