Merritt's Mill Pond in Jackson County, Florida

Photograph: Jackson County Blue Springs (6357916).jpeg by U.S. Army image by Airman 1st Class Jonathan Whitely · Public domain · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Jackson County attraction

Merritt's Mill Pond

Jackson County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast

A pond of 202 acres running about four miles east of Marianna, fed by a first-magnitude spring.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Jackson Blue Spring supplies it at 64.6 million gallons a day, with nearly a dozen smaller springs adding to that along the length of the pond. The dam that holds it was built after the Civil War to turn a grist mill, and was extended when US 98 was laid across it; the old Ice House beside the dam was once a hydroelectric plant and later a restaurant. What makes the pond unusual is what is underneath it. Springs and cave entrances open along the banks, among them Shangri-La Springs, Indian Washtub, Twin Caves, Heidi Hole, Lamars Landing, Gator Spring and the Hole in the Rock, and trained cave divers come from a long way for them. There are two public access points: Hunters Fish Camp Landing, free all year with a paved ramp, and Blue Springs Recreation Area, seasonal and charged. A world-record shellcracker of 4.86 pounds came out of this water

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

MOVING TO JACKSON COUNTY?Fourteen services. One business each.

Attorneys, movers, insurance, title companies, roofers and nine more — one listed business per service in Jackson County.

See local help in Jackson County →

Keep comparing

Return to the Things to Do choices in Jackson County.

Back to Jackson County