Tag Archives: Blue Spring

Withlacoochee River bridges, Brooks and Lowndes Counties, 1906 and 1917

Knight Bridge and Rocky Ford Bridge appear in some century-old maps in Georgia Archives.

[Knight Bridge 1917 and remaining posts 2022]
Knight Bridge 1917 and remaining posts 2022

At the top left you can see a road going to the site of Spain Ferry.

Another road reaches the river downstream from there. Current aerial maps show that road is still there in the woods, although the path of the river seems to have shifted west somewhat at that point.

Then there’s Knight Bridge, near where Knights Ferry Boat Ramp is now.

Notice that the old road to Knight Bridge jags south before it gets to the river.

In this current map you can see that old road still there in the woods. Continue reading →

Wade Spring 2017-05-21

The ghostly remains of the spring pool in what was once a famous resort. Aaron Sirmons says the owner told him when her father bought the place in the 1960s, the spring was already destroyed. The Brooks County Manager told me somebody tried to enlarge it and destroyed it. It looks like maybe they used dynamite.

Wade Spring with Aaron Sirmans as reference human

Wade Spring is actually easily visible from Blue Springs Road in Brooks County, Georgia, if you know just where to peer through the bushes. That’s at Continue reading →

Wade Spring, 7 miles east of Quitman, GA, May 2017

Local cave diver Aaron Sirmons took these pictures and videos of the formerly famous Wade Springs of Brooks County, Georgia, between Blue Springs Road and the railroad, west of the Withlacoochee River. He has a letter of permission from the landowner.

Concentric circles, late March 2017

Concentric circles, late March 2017

Almost dry, May 2017

Continue reading →

Brooks County, Springs Capital of Georgia

Brooks County can boast three springs of a type usually thought to be only in Florida. Of only about six second magnitude springs in Georgia, three are downstream from US 84: Wade or Blue Springs, sadly defunct; McIntyre Spring, large and easily accessible in the right bank emerging from 4610 feet of caverns back under Brooks County; and Arnold Springs, actually three small springs in the left bank.

Movie: Swimming at McIntyre Spring (1.5M)
Picture by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition 9 July 2016,
as are all the other pictures herein not otherwise labeled.

And there are numerous shoals between these springs.

Springs

Continue reading →

Blue Spring and McIntyre Spring, Withlacoochee River, Brooks County, GA, 1903-11

Update: 4610-foot explored cavern under McIntyre Spring.

Blue Spring between Quitman and Valdosta has been known since the settling of Brooks County, when it was used as a reference point in building roads starting in 1859. Here’s an early 20th century report, with a much later picture postcard (probably not the same building) and location map.

A Preliminary Report on the Underground Waters of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, State Geologist, Continue reading →