Rum Island Spring is featured in this eponymous Columbia County park. It is a 2nd magnitude spring in the Gilchrist Blue Spring sub-basin, similar to Poe, Gilchrist Blue and the Ichetucknee Head Spring.
The vent is only a few yards from the Santa Fe River, and is frequently browned out when the river overwhelms the spring. Rum Island Spring was once known as JAHFEW Spring, an acronym of the six cousins of the Sikes and Moreland families that used the spring before the 1920’s.
Below are additional descriptions of Rum Island Springs from other sources.
“The SFR splits into two channels at Rum Island; most river navigation takes the left channel as it has the
higher flow. Rum Island is surrounded by a series of small spring vents. The right channel runs along Rum
Island (Columbia) County Park, which has a boat ramp. On the right bank at the downstream end of the
park is Rum Island Spring. This spring lies directly along the river, and has some smaller vents that extend
out into the channel” Santa Fe River Field Trip, p. 16., accessed online 2025.
“The eponymous spring at Rum Island is a single fissure in the SW portion of the 200-foot-diameter pool that it forms NW of Rum Island. The water is clear and greenish in tint, and in the deeper sections is heavily infested with hydrilla. On dates of visit in 1999 and 2000, the entire area around the vent, which is about 7 feet deep, was covered with exotic vegetation. In 2002, the area between the spring and the shore had been cleared, but the vent was still surrounded by hydrilla.
Water flows strongly from a curved flying saucer-shaped cavern entrance that is about 10 feet long and 3-4 feet high in the center. There is a 3-foot bank around the pool that is heavily eroded by recreational use. The water gets more shallow as it approaches the bank. The large pool opens directly into the Santa Fe River.” From Spring Fever, http://thespringsfever.com/spr/RumIsland.html, accessed online 2025.
References:
Florida Paddle Notes has great descriptions and photography of Rum Island as a destination and launch site . Florida Paddle Notes, James Steele, https://www.floridapaddlenotes.com/, All Rights Reserved 2018
Santa Fe River Field Trip, Alachua, Columbia, and Gilchrist Counties, Florida, June 8, 2014, Guidebook Number 61, The Southeastern Geological Society (SEGS), Edited by: Peter Butt, Samantha Andrews, P.G., Greg Mudd, P.G. https://segs.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Microsoft_Word__Sante_Fe_SEGS_Guidebook_No_61_FINAL.pdf
Springs Fever: A Field and Recreation Guide to Florida Springs. Follman, J., and Buchanan, R. (n.d.). April 19, 2025 from http://thespringsfever.com/xxSantaFeChapter.html
Springs of Florida (FGS : Bulletin 66), USGS, 2004, https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00094032/00001/images/493
Springs 101 from the Howard T Odum Florida Springs Institute.
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