Manatee Springs State Park
| Manatee Springs State Park | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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| Location | Levy County, Florida, USA |
| Nearest city | Chiefland |
| Coordinates | 29°29′25.49″N 82°58′37.47″W / 29.4904139°N 82.9770750°WCoordinates: 29°29′25.49″N 82°58′37.47″W / 29.4904139°N 82.9770750°W |
| Governing body | Florida Department of Environmental Protection |
| Designated | December 1971 |
Manatee Springs State Park is a Florida State Park located six miles west of Chiefland on SR 320, off US 19. Manatee Spring is a first magnitude spring that flows directly into the Suwannee River by way of a short run (though it is the longest spring run feeding the Suwannee River). Present also are swamps and hardwood wetlands along the Suwannee, along with many sinkhole ponds, including one with a cave 90 feet below the ground that connects to a popular divers' destination known as the catfish hotel.
Manatee Springs was visited in 1774 by William Bartram (1739–1823) and described in his book Travels through North & South Carolina, East & West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws, Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions, Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians (1791); it was named by Bartram himself ("Manate Springs") after seeing a manatee carcass on the shoreline of the spring run.
Tree types in the park consist of cypress, sweetgum, maple and ash.
Largemouth bass, speckled perch, catfish and bream and longnose gar are some of the fish in this part of the Suwannee. White-tailed deer and various small mammals and birds can also be seen in the park year-round.
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