Corridor Story

Linking Silver Springs and the city of Ormond Beach, the Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway provides access to a mosaic of natural lands and communities surrounding one of Florida’s most distinctive ecosystems known as the Big Scrub. Traversing eastern Marion County and parts of Lake, Putnam and Volusia counties, the 60-mile long corridor along SR 40 serves as the backbone for a network of scenic roads and interpretive trails that foster an understanding and appreciation of Florida’s Big Scrub and its inhabitants.

The corridor is protected by public lands, including the Ocala National Forest, Lake George State Forest, Heart Island Conservation Area and Tiger Bay State Forest. At the heart of these lie the Big Scrub, the world’s largest continuous sand pine forest created from ancient sand dunes capped with vegetation adapted to a lack of water. Among these rolling sand hills also hide vast wet prairies and crystalline springs that pour forth millions of gallons of fresh water daily from the Floridan aquifer. Lush floodplain forests lie along some of Florida’s most significant rivers including the St. Johns. Within the Big Scrub resides the state’s largest population of Florida black bear, a threatened subspecies endemic to Florida. Commonly spotted along roadsides and trails, the Florida black bear is an iconic symbol of this unique region, and a fitting namesake for this exceptional scenic byway.

The Big Scrub is also home to endangered indigo snakes, sand skinks, and the threatened Florida scrub jay. Endemic and rare plants flourish here, like the Florida bonamia, scrub buckwheat, scrub paw-paw, and Lewton’s polygala. Longleaf pine islands punctuate the scrub forest, where an open understory affords a spectacular view for a mile and more in places, with wiregrass forming a soft haze on the forest floor. Karst features, such as sinkholes, caves, and springs outcrop most notably where water meets bedrock. Sinkhole lakes, vast wet and dry prairies, and dense hammocks of sand live oaks add to the mosaic of life in this, the Greater Ocala Ecoregion. The region’s eastern boundary is defined by Tiger Bay, a large swamp containing pine islands forming an ancient marine terrace between two ancient sand dune ridges.

Springs and Rivers
Freshwater springs are among the most popular public attractions within the Big Scrub. Salt Springs is just one of many first- and second- magnitude springs along the corridor that collectively issue forth billions of gallons of fresh water daily, creating crystalline rivers and spring runs lined with lush forests and cypress floodplains that stand in sharp contrast to the sandy scrub environment. Silver Springs’ Mammoth Springs is one of the world’s largest springs, gushing nearly 550 million gallons of water each day. Through numerous spring vents, Silver Springs forms the point of origin of the Silver River, which in turn feeds the Ocklawaha River, an Outstanding Florida Water. Since 1878, the spring has been a focal point for regional tourism centered around Silver Springs Attraction with its signature glass bottom boats. The spring is recognized worldwide as a historical setting for the film and television industry. At Fern Hammock Springs, nicknamed “The Aquarium,” spring boils look like underwater dust storms and post-modern video screens; hypnotic gray images flickering across a milky turquoise base. At Silver Glen Springs, the “Natural Well” hosts swirling schools of mullet and striped bass, blue crab and sting rays, seagoing fish that have taken up permanent residence in this warm, brackish outflow that merges with the St. Johns River, a “river of lakes” meandering through the region. The St. Johns, a designated American Heritage River, is crossed by SR 40 at Astor. The Tomoka River, a smaller body of water designated a Florida Outstanding River, is crossed by SR 40 in Ormond Beach.

History
On November 24, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt designated 202,000 acres of scrub as the Ocala National Forest, creating the first National Forest east of the Mississippi River, and the second National Forest within the continental United States. The dense sand pine and xeric oak scrub relies on fire for rejuvenation. Its infertile, dry, sandy soils make it a poor choice for human settlement and almost impossible for agriculture. Scraping a living out of the Big Scrub was tough. According to one folktale, a farmer sold off a piece of poor land to a church, which in turn had to “telegraph Jacksonville for ten sacks of commercial fertilizer…before they could raise a tune.”

The human legacy of the corridor runs deep. Shell middens (mounds of freshwater shelfish remains discarded along river banks by Florida’s prehistoric people) mark village sites of the Timucua, an ancient culture of farmers and hunters that inhabited the region for nearly 10,000 years. These middens would be excavated in the 1890s by archaeologists. They were found to contain some of the earliest pottery and artifacts in North America. Local road builders, not recognizing the significance of the middens, used the shell to pave early roads. Nevertheless, today remnants of this ancient people still remain throughout the region, with burial mounds and middens shaded by ancient live oaks.

In 1765 and again in 1774, botanist William Bartram plied the waters of the St. Johns River and explored the nooks and crannies afforded by its many spring-fed tributaries. Samuel Taylor Coleridge based his epic poem Kubla Khan on the romantic description Bartram gave to Salt Springs, an “amazing crystal fountain…which meanders six miles through green meadows, pouring its limpid waters into the great Lake George,” where within the spring, “white sand and small particles of shells are thrown up with the waters.” European and American pioneers and traders such as James Spalding created small settlements along the St. Johns and other rivers in the late 1700s. Homesteading in the more fertile lands around the Big Scrub began after the Third Seminole War ended in 1858, and influxes of settlers increased again after the Civil War. By the 1870s, a circuit-riding preacher traversed the trails by horseback, preaching in the communities of Salt Springs, Pat’s Island, Astor, and Paisley. Settlers traveled between these hardscrabble communities by water and horse and wagon.

In the fall of 1876, Reuben and Sara Jane Long established a homestead on Pat’s Island, a high and dry island of longleaf pine in the Big Scrub. When the government offered to buy their land, the settlers of Pat’s Island moved, but the Long family cemetery remains—as does the legacy of their young son Melvin, who raised a fawn and had his tale retold decades later by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings as The Yearling, her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Today, the stories of these hardy pioneers are told through interpretive exhibits, original buildings, and artifacts at Silver River State Park and Museum, and at the Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts in Barberville.

Making Connections
As the connection between communities and the outdoors, the Black Bear Scenic Byway links people to the land, affording opportunities for visitors to pause, appreciate and enjoy. The rolling sandhills of the Ocala National Forest with their vast open understory are an excellent place to spot deer and turkey, and flush quail. These lands have served as traditional hunting grounds since humans first walked this forest. The region hosts more than 100 miles of the Florida Trail, one of eight National Scenic Trails in the United States, and nearly 200 miles of hiking, biking, equestrian and ORV trails for deeper exploration of the forest. Anglers flock to Lake George, Lake Kerr and dozens of smaller lakes for world-class bass and bream fishing, while paddlers seek out the beauty of the clear, cool spring runs and the challenging turns of the Ocklawaha and Silver Rivers. From interpretation at visitor centers, museums and education centers to hands-on exploration, there’s always something to learn along the Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway.