Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in White Springs, FL

White Springs is a historic town in Hamilton County, North Florida, sitting on the banks of the Suwannee River, which is also its town motto.

White Springs began as the settlement of Jackson Springs in 1831 and was incorporated as a town in 1885.

The town grew around White Sulphur Springs, a mineral spring that Native American tribes treated as a sacred healing ground where even warring parties could bathe and drink in safety; in the 1830s and 1840s settler Bryant Sheffield bought the spring and built a hotel and spring house beside it, making White Springs Florida's first tourist destination.

At its late-1800s peak as a health resort, White Springs had around 14 luxury hotels plus many boarding houses serving visitors who arrived by excursion train to take the waters, though the mineral-bathing craze faded by the 1930s.

White Springs is home to Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, which honors composer Stephen Foster, whose 1851 song 'Old Folks at Home' made the Suwannee River world-famous and became Florida's official state song in 1935, even though Foster never visited Florida.

The state park's carillon, opened in 1957, contains the world's largest set of tubular bells and plays Foster's songs throughout the day.

White Springs hosts the Florida Folk Festival, first held in 1953 at the state park; it is the longest-running state folk festival in the United States and draws thousands of visitors each Memorial Day weekend.

The White Springs Historic District, with 88 contributing structures including Victorian homes and the Adams Brothers General Merchandise Store dating to 1865, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

White Springs had a population of 740 at the 2020 census, in 464 households, a fraction of its resort-era size; the town covers about 1.8 square miles in southeastern Hamilton County.

After decades of decline, the flow of White Sulphur Springs slowed and finally stopped altogether in 1990, a loss local leaders have campaigned to reverse by restoring the Floridan aquifer.