United States » Morgan Spring

  • Currently 2.7/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Rated 2.7/5 stars (337 ratings) Thanks for rating this cave system!

Overview Location & Specifics Conditions Resources Nearby Systems  
Portions of the following information were taken from Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 66.

Morgan Spring is located approximately 3.2 miles northwest of Ellaville on the northern Withlacoochee River. From the intersection of US 90 and CR 141 just north of Ellaville, travel east on CR 141 approximately 1.8 miles to the bridge over the Withlacoochee River. Morgan Spring is located on the east bank approximately 2.5 miles north of the SR 141 bridge.

Description - Morgan Spring has a man-made dam about 9.0 ft long which impounds the spring and creates the spring pool. There is a large wooden deck around the spring pool. The vent is located roughly in the center of the pool. The spring pool is oval shaped and measures 81.0 ft long and 66.0 ft wide. The depth is 19.2 ft; however, Hornsby and Ceryak (1998) reported a maximum depth of 80 ft. During the September 2002 visit, the water was dark with poor visibility. The spring pool was completely covered with duckweed, and no boil was visible on the spring surface. The spring run flows northwest about 400 ft into the Withlacoochee River. The run has large limestone boulders and contains slow-moving water that is covered with duckweed. The surroundings are densely forested. High ground surrounding the spring varies from 3 ft to the east to 25 ft to the northeast above the pool. A house is situated 150 ft southwest of the spring, and Morgan Spring is surrounded by private land. Discharge on June 10, 1998 measured 17.59 ft3/s. An aquatic cave system is present at this spring and has been explored by divers.
Click the map below for all mapping options.
Click to View Larger Map
Latitude: 30.419966
Longitude: -83.20724
Zone:
Coordinate System:
Maximum Depth: 208'
 Cave Diving
 Cavern Diving
 Open Water Diving
Date Submitter Visbility Remarks
9/4/2011 Keith Gault 1-40ft Basin was ugly and smelt aweful. Water level was very low, with no connection to the river. Visibility was 1 ft in the top 15 ft, clearing to a few feet for the descent down to 150 where the visibility improved. At depth the visibility was 40-60 ft. Exit is interesting as the steps are out of the water; we choose to removed gear in the water.
7/24/2010 Tegg 15-20ft Decent vis from what I hear. Nice cave.
5/29/2010 Billy Fowler 5 - 30 Viz started out spectacular compared to yesterday; 20 to 30ft from the start all the way out to just before the first shortcut. Vis dropped to 10ft and the flow seamed to almost stop. Continued on and the water turned cold and tannic, viz dropped to less than 5 ft and there seemed to be no flow. Conditions remained the same for the next 1000ft to the new Junction room, Looked around for the scooter that was staged in the area but my suit started to flood. I did not see the scooter but the vis was 3 to 5 ft so it’s difficult to say if it is there or not.
5/28/2010 Billy Fowler 5 - 20 Viz is starting to clear, positive flow but weak; particulates on everything so viz will go to zero but it settles fast. After the last upstream jump the viz improves considerably.
12/4/2009 Billy Fowler 0 the river is up and flowing right into Morgan (It looked like a big toilet bowl) Decided not to dive as you could see the black river water running into the sink and right down into the cave.
11/24/2009 Bil Lindstrom 30' First time here - awesome dive. Kudos to whoever is doing the relining - it is nicely done from what i saw and really appreciate the little touches such as the rings on the line to attach deco bottles. Basin was hazy and greenish, but good viz anyway. Very little flow, real nice dive.
10/3/2009 Billy Fowler 20-60 The front of the cave was 20 to 30 ft of viz but it opened up back at the EOL to about 40 to 60 ft
9/20/2009 Brian Richardson 60-70 First time in the system. basin was probably 10 feet of vis. cleared dramatically once in the cave. swam to about 850. pretty the whole way.
9/19/2009 post bellow is for pot pot springs please erase post bellow and this one also.
9/19/2009 Craig Gaffka 100 The spring was pumping some of the bluest water I've ever seen. It was my first dive there and I was surprised at how much water was pumping out of the entrance. The feeling of water blasting by you is incredible. While pulling my self into the entrance I caused a pretty good debris flow which funneled lots of sand into the entrance. This caused a pretty violent sand storm in the basin which kept recirculating causing the basin to white out. The Flow was so high that the sand was kept from entering the cave. peaking around the torrent unveiled perfectly clear blue water, very cool. I turned the dive just inside the cavern just past the cobble crawl. I could not find a line and didn't have a primary to make a long run to one. So bring a primary to this one, and good luck running it into a fire hydrant. It would be nice if someone took the line to just inside the entrance. The Line may be completely displaced after the flood for all I know.
8/21/2009 Denise Byrne Johnson 100 The basin was cloudy, algae bloom, with little or no flow out the slough to the river. It cleared a lot after just 10', so finding the line was easy to drop the O2 bottles. Vis at the entrance was even better. Dropping down the shaff, the vis improved dramatically to at least 100'.. nearly perfect. Cave was clean, clear and tons of life.
10/8/2006 Sam M 80 only got down to 100' and had to turn the dive b/c of an equipment issue. The basin vis was 0-3', but once you got past the 50-60' depth, it was crystal clear. Ginnie clear. no real flow to speak of at that point, but I wasn't all the way down in either. Going back in a few weeks.
Click here if you would like to contribute any information or resources for this system.
Description Type Date Author Remarks
 System Map Map Wes Skiles
Sslect Search Radius:
System Depth Cave Cavern OW Last Report Distance (mi)
 Overview Information Available for Madison Blue Springs  Madison Blue Springs 130 True True False 4/2/2024 4.7
 Overview Information Available for Edwards Spring  Edward's Spring 145 True False False 10/27/2023 3.2
 Overview Information Available for Suwanacoochee Cave  Suwanacoochee Cave 125 True False False 4/22/2019 3.2
 Overview Information Available for Anderson Spring  Anderson Spring 80 True False False 7/2/2017 4.8
 Overview Information Available for Pot Spring  Pot Spring 70 True False False 6/18/2017 3.9
 Overview Information Available for Lineater Spring  Lineater Spring True False False 12/8/2016 3.3
 Overview Information Available for Cathedral Sink  Cathedral Sink 200 True False False 12/29/2014 6.3
 Overview Information Available for Falmouth Spring  Falmouth Spring 200 True False False 1/1/2014 5.9
 Overview Information Available for Adams Spring  Adams Spring True False False 8/4/2010 1
 Overview Information Available for Alapaha River Rise  Alapaha River Rise True False False 7.2
 Overview Information Available for Lime Spring  Lime Spring True False False 3
 Overview Information Available for Tanner Spring  Tanner Spring 130 True False False 3.1
 Overview Information Available for Holton Creek Rise  Holton Creek Rise True False False 9
   Aquarius Sink 128 True False False 6
   Big Bamboo Sink 148 True False False 4
   Jade Hole 162 True False False 4.6
   Firecracker Cave 120 True False False 7
   Goul De Tannerie False False False 3.1
 Overview Information Available for Rossetter Spring  Rossetter Spring True False False 9
 Overview Information Available for Owls Eye Spring  Owl's Eye Spring 40 True False False 0.1