Tag Archives: Barber Pool

Former Artesian Spring, Saunders Park, Valdosta, GA 2017-09-16

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Excerpted from another post eight years ago. This barely trickling spring is on Sugar Creek, which flows to the Withlacoochee River. It is a cautionary tale for overpumping groundwater.

[Former Artesian Spring, Saunders Park, Valdosta, GA 2017-09-16, On Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River]
Former Artesian Spring, Saunders Park, Valdosta, GA 2017-09-16, On Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River

My father told me there used to be a bath house on River Street west of downtown Valdosta, fed by an artesian well. I remember decades ago there being tumble-down buildings. In recent years I never could locate them.

Turns out that’s because it became John W. Saunders Park, 1151 River Street, Valdosta, Georgia. Continue reading →

Oppose Nestle water from Ginnie Springs and Madison Blue Spring @ SRWMD 2019-12-10

You can help oppose Nestlé’s water withdrawals from the Floridan Aquifer, at the next Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) board meeting in Live Oak.

You can sign one of many petitions, such as one by SumOfUs.

Even better, you can come object to that extension. I ask people to come to every SRWMD board meeting, and maybe you can make this one.

Best, you can file a comment with SRWMD.

When: 9:00 AM, Tuesday, December 20 10, 2019

Where: SRWMD Headquarters, 9225 County Road 49, Live Oak, FL 32060-7056

What: SRWMD Board meeting

You can also ask SRWMD to review Nestlé’s withdrawal permit at Madison Blue Spring on the Withlacoochee River.

These are Nestlé’s landholdings next to Madison Blue Spring, according to the Madison County Property Appraiser:

[Nestle-madison-blue-spring]

For comparison, this little bit on the Withlacoochee River is Madison Blue Spring State Park, smaller than Nestlé’s main bottling plant. Continue reading →

Barber Pool, early 20th century

Update 2025-09-13: Updated format, fixed typos, and added a map.

[Barber Pool, former spring, Saunders Park, Valdosta GA, E.R. Barber, Coca-Cola, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River]
Barber Pool, former spring, Saunders Park, Valdosta GA, E.R. Barber, Coca-Cola, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River

Floridians worried about springs drying up: it already happened to this one. A sad channel with no flow in Saunders Park once was a large and famous spring-fed pool, remembered by many in Valdosta, Georgia, both those who went there and those who were refused. Continue reading →