Immigration Attorneys in White Springs, FL

WHITE SPRINGS, Fla. – Some people in White Springs are still completely surrounded by water because of Tropical Storm Debby.

RELATED: Tropical Storm Debby brings flooding to Suwannee County; Live Oak under more than a foot of water

That includes residents on Null Road.

Munroe Donoway and his grandson Bryson grabbed a canoe to go check on a newly installed fence that they found floating in the water.

Null Road was basically the Suwannee River Wednesday.

“You hear that thunder? It could get worse,” Donoway said.

People living on Null Road are built for this as most homes are on stilts, high above the water.

Everything else is well below it.

“It’s going to crest around 80 feet,” he said.

It sounds high, but Dunaway believes most of these homes are in the clear.

There are several homes in the area but neighbors and people who rent property in the area said people living there are ready. They have canoes and have gone through this before.

On Monday it looked like a river in Julie Mandy’s yard in Lake City.

“The problem is water that comes down lower Springs Road has nowhere to go,” said Mandy.

She lives where Hugh Leslie Court and Lower Springs Road meets her backyard, where she trains dogs, is in a very real sense swamped.

“That was the worst I’ve ever seen,” she said.

She hopes when repairs are being done to nearby roads, there can be some attention to the homes in her area.

“Put a bigger culvert in so that it will run down the fire line and clean out that fire line so that it will run smoothly to where it needs to go,” Mandy said.

Officials with Columbia County Emergency Management said they are having meetings and sending crews all over the county to assess roads. It will more than likely be a month’s long clean-up project.

Until the water is gone completely, and things are back to normal, people are making the most of the situation.

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White Springs, Florida, is a quintessential small Florida town. There are fun things to do in White Springs, including attending the annual Florida Folk Festival.

Considered to be “Florida’s Original Tourist Destination”, this area attracted well-heeled tourists in search of the relaxing, medicinal waters of the White Sulphur Springs.

There’s not a lot remaining from its heyday in the early 1900s, but we have pulled together a list of the six best things to do in White Springs today.

Things To Do in White Springs

Table of contents

Visit Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park

In 1851, composer Stephen Foster wrote the popular tune “Old Folks at Home,” and White Springs became a destination “Way Down Upon the Suwannee River.”

Nowadays, the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center and Park, known for its carillon-playing melodic Stephen Foster tunes, is home to the annual Florida Folk Festival and an antebellum museum that pays homage to Foster and his music.

Check out: Celebrate the 70th Annual Florida Folk Festival Memorial Day Weekend

Shop and Stroll Down Spring Street

While there is no longer a bubbly spring, Adam’s Country Store has reopened as Suwannee Hardware and Feed.

We recommend a stop at this historic store followed by a stroll around this small town to absorb its charm.

If you plan to attend the 2024 Florida Folk Festival at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center, don’t miss the Memorial Weekend Festival at the Suwannee Hardware & Feed Store.

The event features live bands, clogging, food, arts and crafts, a kid zone, and the soap box derby.

Suwannee Hardware & Feed Address: 10572 Bridge Street, White Springs, FL 32096.

You will see churches dating back to the late 1800s and several historic homes that stand as authentic reminders of the past.

Bike, Hike, Paddle and Bird Watch

White Springs is an eco-tourism destination, as hikers and bikers enjoy nearby Florida trails and paddlers also enjoy the rivers and springs.

White Springs is celebrated for its extensive array of hiking, biking, and paddling trails, excellent navigation, hospitable locals, and a rich blend of amenities and history.

Bird watchers flock to traipse through the woods where Eagles, Osprey, Pileated Woodpeckers, and Owls call home.

Outside White Springs, along the Suwannee River, is Big Shoals, State Park. This is home to Florida’s largest whitewater rapids.

Hike the trails that lead to the shoals (shallow, rocky rapids). The well-laid-out trail is in the pine Flatwoods, along wetlands, and beneath towering longleaf pines.

White Springs, renowned as the Florida Trail’s initial Gateway Community, has earned the prestigious title of a Trail Town by the Florida Office of Greenways and Trails.

This achievement is a testament to the dedicated efforts of the local community.

Stop at the Old Bathhouse

In 1908, the bathhouse was a four-story building with dressing rooms, examination and treatment rooms, and a concession stand. The circular balconies surrounded a 20 x 30-foot bathing pool cut from solid rock.

By the 1930s, the popularity of the resort had dwindled. The spring, which once flowed at a rate of about 47 million gallons a day, dried up in 1990.

Today you can visit the old bathhouse for free and learn about its historic past.

Lodge in a Slice of Old Florida

The White Springs Bed ‘n Breakfast is an original 1905 Boarding House located in the Historic District of White Springs. Even today, guests love to gather on the front porch and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Back in the day, several fancy hotels provided lodging as the railroad brought visitors to the town.

A fire destroyed most of the hotels, but The Telford Hotel has tried to remain open throughout the years and most recently served as a Bed and Breakfast.

Sadly, in 2020 there was a handwritten For Sale sign on the front door of The Telford Hotel.

Camping and lodging are also available at Suwannee River State Park, O’Leno State Park, and Spirit of the Suwannee to name a few.

For a comprehensive list of local public and private campgrounds, cabins, and also motels, visit Suwannee Valley.

Dine at Fat Belly’s Bar-B-Que and Grill

There are not a lot of dining options in White Springs. We did enjoy a meal (the fried shrimp was excellent) and sweet tea at Fat Belly’s Bar-B-Que & Grill.

We heard they have a good Southern bar-b-que, so we plan to try it the next time we’re in White Springs.

If you want to find other places to eat, Lake City is not too far away and offers many choices.

Looking for other recommendations for things to do and places to visit? See below.

One of the most enjoyable family holiday traditions involves everyone piling into a car and driving around in search of the best Christmas lights in FL. The best part of it all is that Florida is filled with incredible light displays no matter where you are in the state. In fact, some of the best holiday lights might be right in your own backyard – try these drive-through Christmas lights on for size! Check out some of the best Christmas displays in Florida in one solid list:

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11 Main Streets In Florida That Are Pure Magic During Christmastime

Have you visited these displays before? What are your favorite drive-thru Christmas displays in Florida? Are there any drive thru light shows that we missed? Make sure to share with us in the comments section! We’d love to hear about new and up-and-coming displays that will illuminate the Florida skies.

Christmas lights make a wonderful road trip. Check out this road trip itinerary featuring several must-visit destinations. Just don’t forget the road trip snacks before you go!

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What's the most beautiful holiday event in Florida?

Ask any Southern Floridian and they’ll tell you that Christmas in Florida isn’t complete until they visit Santa’s Enchanted Forest in Miami. Named one of the biggest and best Christmas displays in the state, Santa’s Enchanted Forest is one of the most beautiful wintertime adventures for the whole family. Come enjoy carnival rides, tons of games, carnival food, and so much more. There is winter decor throughout the park and tons of holiday ambiance, so it’s easy to get into the holiday spirit here. Plus, you may even score a visit from Santa Claus himself!

What will winter be like in Florida this year?

We’re lucky every year to have predictions from the Farmers Almanac that will tell us what to expect for the upcoming winter season. Don’t worry, the predictions this year will not affect any holiday events in Florida. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, Floridians can expect a wetter, colder winter than normal. While we won’t really get any snow or any weather like other states up north, it’s still best to keep rain boots and a winter jacket handy this year.

What are the best sled riding hills in Florida?

Unfortunately, winter in Florida doesn’t really yield much in terms of snowfall. However, there is one tubing hill that opened last year that is the perfect winter wonderland. Snowcat Ridge in Tampa is the first snow tubing hill in the state and will bring all of your childhood dreams to come true. Enjoy a 60-foot tall, 400-foot wide snow tubing hill, plus a 10,000-square foot snow play dome. As the very first Florida snow park of its kind, this is not a winter adventure you’ll want to miss.

What if there were an event you could attend this Memorial Day weekend that would be safe, and fun and refreshing to the weary spirit, without having to book a flight or take out a home loan to pay for the trip? The answer is an old-fashioned road trip to the annual Florida Folk Festival, May 27-29, at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida.

More:Artist, advocate Mel Meo was a Pine Island treasure

White Springs is 60 miles north of Gainesville, making it a 4 1/2 hour or so drive from Fort Myers. It’s an “old Florida” town of mossy oaks and antique shops on the bank of the Suwannee River, populated by maybe, at a stretch, a thousand people.

If you have never visited White Springs or the Stephen Foster State Park, or the Florida Folk Festival, “one of the oldest and most revered state folk festivals in America,” and “Florida’s Best Cultural Event, ” “…recognized by the Southeast Tourism Society as a ‘Top 20 Event’ in the southeast United States,” there is no better time than now to do so.

This three-day festival is your chance to discover the “music, dance, stories, crafts and food that make Florida unique.” And you will need all three days to experience and truly enjoy the whole of it, so book rooms NOW, anywhere as close as you can get to White Springs.

A Smorgasbord Feast for the Senses

The following is a mere overview of this phenomenal event that, best of all, takes place outdoors in the free, fresh, healthy air of north Florida country, where you can lean against a pine tree to sample some hand-cranked ice cream, and dance yourself sleepy under a star-bright sky each night. The festival is a feast for the senses—all five of them:

• Your first sense will be excited by the unusual, colorful, and fascinating sights you will encounter at every turn. In the Florida Remembered area, for example, you’ll see frontier trapper traders, and farmers in a cracker camp threshing barley and grinding corn. In the Seminole family camp area, you’ll find Seminole women at whirring sewing machines making traditional patchwork clothing. And in the crafts section, your eyes will widen in astonishment at the artistry of some 25 craftsmen and women selling everything from handcrafted acoustic guitars to gourd banjoes, from handwoven apparel to Hungarian embroidery, from Florida nature-inspired stained glass to handcrafted, primitive-Florida-style home furnishings. Here you can watch a blacksmith forge everything from barbeque tools to children’s toys, a spinner making rag rugs on a ridge heddle loom, and a woodcarver turning Florida bamboo into flutes, whistles, and bird calls.

More:Where have all the flowers gone (gladiolas, to be precise)?

• Your sense of hearing will be fully awakened by the sound of music—the music reflecting the wonderful diversity of cultures that have flavored the history of Florida, from Florida fiddling to Dôdô Awoko from the republic of Côte d’Ivoire of Africa; from old-time banjo (predating bluegrass!) to Spanish Flamenco performed by Master Artists of the dance. You can revel in Caribbean-style music, like reggae, as well as Haitian-style dance music performed by the Karibbean Groove, who are, incidentally, a band of Haitians who met in a church in Immokalee where their families were farmworkers.

Among these traditional artists (sponsored in part by the Florida Department of State Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts), you will enjoy the early 20th-century style of Cuban music performed by Grammy-nominated José Elias. Puerto Rico is represented by Plena Es, a band playing a combination of bomba, “the 17th-century music created by West African slaves on Puerto Rico’s sugar plantations,” and plena, “ mixed bomba with indigenous Taíno Indian music, jibaro music of the island’s mountain farmers, chamber music of the Spanish colonizers and the rhyming verse of urban satirists.” “The essence of the instruments…” says the band’s founder, “…creates such a powerful force that it doesn’t matter where you are from. I bet you will move.”

And, as if the international music of these traditional artists were not enough, music lovers can satiate their appetites at the amphitheater performances, over the three nights of the festival, of special-guest musicians who are international recording stars, inductees in every music hall of fame in existence, and winners of every known music award in genres as diverse as rock and roll and sacred steel (a type of music described as “an inspired, unique form of gospel music with a hard-driving, blues-based beat”), of Americana, or “harmony-based folk-rock,” and psychedelic bluegrass by the Firewater Tent Revival, of Florida folk music and tropical rock. Songwriters/singers and Grammy winners like Jim Stafford, Billy Dean, Bertie Higgins, and Del Suggs are just a few of the featured artists performing under the stars each night of the festival. Not to mention John McEwen (co-founder of the Nitty Gritty Dirt band, and producer of the platinum, Grammy Hall of Fame album “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” named by the 2004 ZAGAT survey, “the most important record in country music.”)

• Your senses of smell and taste will draw you irresistibly to the food that is as diverse and delicious as part of the entertainment as the crafts, history, and music of this folk festival phenomenon. Come hungry for breakfast and stay all day, because no invitation to sample the cultural diversity of Florida is as compelling as the aromas of fried chicken, cornbread, and collards, of smoked mullet, and hoppin’ John, Mexican empanadas and Greek gyros, fried okra, catfish, corndogs, and roasted turkey legs. In this multi-cultural extravaganza of food choices, you’ll find everything in beverages from chai tea and latte to fresh-squeezed lemonade and pineapple smoothies. And for dessert, how about homemade ice cream and fruit cobbler, fried snickers or sweet tater pie, a root beer float, or just for the fun of it, a cloud of spun-sugar, pink cotton candy?

• Your fifth sense, of touch, will find satisfaction in workshops where you can test your dexterity at weaving with saw palmetto and cabbage palms, or try your hand at drawing music from Florida pioneer-era instruments, like the dobro, the dulcimer, and the banjo. Matter of fact, you really ought not to leave the Florida Folk Festival in Stephen Foster’s memorial park without at least running your fingers over the strings of a banjo. It is inconceivable that anyone ever wrote more songs for and about banjos than Stephen Collins Foster.

Foster was not, as one might imagine, a native Floridian, or even Southern-born. The man who wrote “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Massa’s in de Cold Ground,” and the Suwannee River song was born, educated and lived all his life in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York.

PostScript

In the preceding description of the amazing Florida Folk Festival, I have not scratched the surface of its entertainment. I didn’t mention, for instance, that festival organizers provided for the gratification of your sixth (paranormal) sense, as well as your five (physical) senses. Modeled upon the spiritualist activities at the famous Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp in Volusia County, Florida, psychic readings are given throughout the festival.

Nor did I ask if you’d like to dance. If you love dancing, you may take contra dance, or 19th-century folk dance lessons, learn the swing or the Haitian voodoo pop dance. Or just get up on the Heritage and Dance stage under the stars on Saturday night and do your own thing.

But here’s what I’m thinking; the dreamiest way to end your long weekend at the Florida Folk Festival is to slow dance with someone you love, singing softly,

"Way down upon the Suwanee River,

Far, far away,

That's where my heart is yearning ever,

Home where the old folks stay."

For more festival information, please visit floridastateparks.org/FloridaFolkFestival.

Cynthia A. Williams (cwilliams1020@gmail.com)

If you go

What: Florida Folk Festival

When: May 27-29

Where: Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs

Information: floridastateparks.org/FloridaFolkFestival

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The three day event returns to White Springs today through Sunday

In a state defined by its beaches and tourists, the Florida Folk Festival celebrates those who call the state home far away from any of the sandy shores that surround the peninsula and attract its many visitors.

The oldest state-produced festival in the country celebrates its 67th year Memorial Day weekend at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs. Musicians, artists and performers from across the region will converge along the banks of the Suwannee River to commemorate the Sunshine State Friday through Sunday.

“In a state where we have more than 100 million visitors a year, who you are as a Floridian, what does it mean to have the culture of Florida and where you find the definition of that — it’s White Springs, Florida, every year,” said Tom Shed, a long-time festival performer and spokesman.

The family-friendly folk festival runs from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday and features 300 live performers, 100 food and arts vendors and a massive dance stage. Shed, however, doesn’t want people to get hung up on the word “folk.”

“Unfortunately, the name in the constitution is the Florida Folk Festival when it’s really the music, arts and cultural festival of Florida,” he said.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Shed began performing at the festival in 1972 and has only missed a few years since. He is one of the headline performers that will play at the amphitheater on Sunday night. Other notable performers throughout the weekend include Billy Dean, John Anderson, and John McEuen and the Stringwizards, all of whom, of course, have Florida ties.

Aside from the live performances, a slew of environmental and cultural heritage awareness exhibitors, a diverse selection of food vendors, merchants and craft artists will populate the roughly 80 acres allotted for the festival.

“It’s not a pretense to lure you in,” Shed said. “It’s an authentic presentation of what your culture is as a Floridian.”

Single day passes for adults cost $25 while a weekend pass costs $50. Weekend passes for children ages 16 and under are $5.

The festival is expected to draw 13,000 to 14,000 people, said Andrea Thomas, a spokeswoman for the festival. In 2018, attendance dropped significantly due to the looming presence of a tropical storm.

Setup for the festival began six weeks ago, but preparation for the following year begins right after the current festival ends. Thomas said that things are already in the works for the 2020 and 2021 Florida Folk Festival.

Applications for performers go live each August and are available in October for vendors.

Thomas said people who are already in White Springs fine tuning for this weekend’s festival hail from the far corners of the state, including the Panhandle and Miami.

“It’s extremely exciting,” she said. “Especially knowing how much of a community we are statewide and actually seeing it all come together.”

What: 67th annual event, a three-day celebration of the state’s music, arts, food and culture featuring more than 300 performances on 11 stages

When: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday-Sunday, gates open daily at 8 a.m.

Where: Stephen Foster Culture Center State Park, 11016 Lillian Saunders Drive, White Springs

Tickets: $25 per day or $50 for the weekend advance; $30 per day or $60 for the weekend at the gate; $5 for ages 6-16 for all three days, free for children 5 and younger

Info: 877-635-3655, floridafolkfestival.com

Amphitheater Headline Performers

Friday: John McEuen and The Stringwizards, Rod MacDonald and others starting at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday: John Anderson, Ben Prestage, Mindy Simmons and others starting at 5:30 p.m.

Sunday: Bullard Brothers and Friends, Billy Dean, Tom Shed and others starting at 6:30 p.m.

Florida Folk Festival