Eternal Spring- Man’s 10,000 Years of History at Florida’s Silver Springs by Richard A. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third or fourth book I’ve read of Richard Martin’s. It’s been years since I’ve read his work, but this is clearly head and shoulders above the other books.

This book is superior to so many histories in it’s layout, writing, organization and even images. Martin clearly lays out the early the vast history of the area that includes Silver Springs State Park. At the time of the books publication, 1966, the park area was still privately owned and not part of the state park system as occurred October 1st, 2013.

There is a lenthy list of fish & plants to be found. Much about indians and development of a multi-level attraction.

I will quibble with the amount of writing that is outside the purview of the subject. Martin leaves the tracks at times as he chronicles indians all over Florida, seemingly just because he’s listing indians. Instead fleshing out more in the lives of the indians in the area would have been more germane.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of 10 points.

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This is Estus Whitfield, who has been an environmental adviser to four Florida governors and one of the most respected of Florida environmentalists. He co-authored the Save our Everglades program that setup initiates to help clean water for the future of South Florida and it’s residents. He has also steered a series of other outdoor programs critical to the state of the Florida outdoors and all of us who live here.

I recently finished a series of paintings of speakers who spoke at an event I was involved at Silver River State Park back on June 23rd. The event was created to help educate folks about water and springs issues here in Florida. I’ll feature the 5 illustrations in the next week.