Visitors explore the “Springs Eternal: Florida’s Fragile Fountains of Youth” exhibition, viewing large photographs and displays about Florida’s springs inside a museum gallery.

Springs Eternal: Florida’s Fragile Fountains of Youth

John Moran and Lesley Gamble

Springs Eternal: Florida’s Fragile Fountains of Youth features Florida nature photographer John Moran’s 30-year love affair with the springs of Florida.

Photo and text panels chronicle the story of our springs—their beauty, their ecology, and the people who are drawn to them, body and soul.

Compelling then-and-now photographs show that many of our springs are in serious decline; their flow diminished because of groundwater overpumping, their waters choked with algae fed by sewage, manure and fertilizer, their future uncertain due to political neglect.

But all is not lost and there is much worth fighting to save. The exhibit includes a Ten Things We Can Do to Save our Springs panel by Springs Eternal Project co-director Lesley Gamble, which lays out a vision for sharing this priceless gift—one of the most beautiful and productive aquifer systems in the world—with our children and theirs, for generations to come.

To see a high-resolution PDF of the exhibit panels, please click here. (It will take a few seconds for this large file to load.)

A companion video kiosk features springs videos by Lesley Gamble, John Moran, Eric Flagg and others.

To book the Springs Eternal exhibit in your community, contact John Moran at JohnMoranPhoto@gmail.com

Springs Eternal exhibition display inside the Florida Museum of Natural History featuring large banners, photographs, and interpretive panels about Florida springs.

Visitors enjoying some of the exhibition panels at Springs Eternal

Then & Now Exhibition Panel

Exhibit panel comparing past and present views of Ichetucknee Springs, showing underwater scenes and highlighting environmental changes over time.

  • Then & Now

    Ichetucknee Springs State Park

    Reflection

    Perhaps you have a favorite place in natural Florida where you have felt the presence of the divine.

    For many years, this was my place.

    I would be filled with wonder by this gift of beauty beyond measure — an endless bounty of life-giving water flowing onward to the sea.

    Here, in the crown jewel of Florida’s State Parks, I would be filled with gratitude that people I would never know had the wisdom and foresight to set aside this special place, protected forever — or so I believed.

    Those are great memories, but it all seems like a dream.

    Now when I go to the Ichetucknee, I wonder:
    How could we so dishonor the spirit of creation?

    Then & Now

    I have stood on the banks of the Ichetucknee
    and I have grieved for my loss — our loss —

    as I consider with each passing year
    that my collection of old springs photographs
    seems less a reflection of the real Florida
    than a catalog of what once was.

    The Condition of the Springs

    Like many Florida springs, Ichetucknee Springs has lost much of its flow and is now choked with algae.

    Its blue waters are turning murky and green.

    We know how we got here:

    • groundwater overpumping

    • pollution from fertilizer

    • sewage and manure

    • and lack of political will

    A Warning

    If a foreign power had invaded Florida and done to our springs what we’ve managed to do all by ourselves, we’d be up in arms to defend our precious waters.

    Closing Reflection

    One spring, four decades, five views.
    Devil’s Eye Spring, 2012