Werner-Boyce Salt Springs

Useful Information

Location:	8737 U.S. Highway 19 North, Port Richey FL 34668. (28.2931977, -82.7178949)
Open:	All year 8 to sundown. [2024]
Fee:	Vehicle with 8 Adults USD 4, Pedestrian USD 2, Bicycle USD 2. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Spring
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Werner-Boyce Salt Springs, 9120 Old Post Road, Port Richey, Florida 34668, Tel: +1-727-816-1890.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

31-DEC-1992	initial area acquired by the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund.
2001	park opened.

Description

Werner-Boyce Salt Springs is a series of karst springs along the western coast of Florida. The main spring is rather small, but almost 100 m deep. All the springs are located in the Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park which runs along the western coast of Florida for about 7 km north to south. In the south at Port Richey is the car park of the park, from here a 600 m long trail to the Salt Spring starts. The springs are very deep, there are cave shafts which are more than 60 m deep. Various side branches of those caves have also been explored. But as far as we understand there has been no scientific research on the springs os far. There is no explanation for the origin of the salt.

This is quite sad, as the existence of a salt deposit below the aquifer would be rather important geological information. Salt dissolves quite fast and could explain the frequent collapses of dolines in Florida. The three counties Hernado, Pasco, and Hillborough form the so-called "Sinkhole Alley", where most of the sinkhole collapses of Florida take place. Two-thirds of all the sinkhole damage insurance claims statewide are from these three counties. And Werner-Boyce Salt Springs is located right in the middle.

This park is rather young, the first land was acquired by the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund in 1992. Additional lands was added through a donation from Pasco County, and acquisitions under Preservation 2000 Additions and the Florida Forever Additions and Inholdings programs. The park was finally created in 2001 and is managed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection under lease.

This land is a swampy bayou with numerous rivers and lakes, and of course the springs. Once inhabited by the Tocobaga tribe, they quarried the flint for their stone tools, but there was no permanent habitation. Throughout the early 1800s there was cattle grazing and turpentining, and the salt springs were discovered by the first modern settlers. The cattle preferred certain springs to others because they enjoyed licking the salt from the rocks. Salt was always an important resource, and during the Civil War salt production became an important asset for the Confederates as the Union destroyed every salt work they could find. Salt works were set up on this property, one of the few never dismantled by the Union soldiers. Later, between the 1920s and the 1980s, mullet fishing in the bayou waters was extremely popular. But modern net regulations from 1994 changed the mullet industry heavily and mullet fishing ended. During the Florida land boom in the 1950s and 1960s, developers attempted to drain the area of the park. However, this attempt failed and only some ditches remain from this era.