The St. Marks River is a river in the Big Bend region of Florida. It has been classified by the

Florida Department of Environmental Protection The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is the Florida government agency responsible for environmental protection. History By the mid-1960s, when the federal government was becoming increasingly involved in initiatives desig ...

as an

Outstanding Florida Water Outstanding Florida Waters are rivers, lakes and other water features designated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) under authority of Section 403.061 (27), Florida Statutes as "worthy of special protection because of their ...

, and is the easternmost river within the

Northwest Florida Water Management District The Northwest Florida Water Management District (NWFWMD) stretches from the St. Marks River Basin in Jefferson County to the Perdido River in Escambia County. The District is one of five water management districts in Florida created by the Water Re ...

.Boning, Charles R. 2007. ''Florida's Rivers''. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. The St. Marks River begins in eastern Leon County,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and flows through

Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...

and Wakulla counties into

Apalachee Bay Apalachee Bay is a bay in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico occupying an indentation of the Florida coast to the west of where the Florida peninsula joins the United States mainland. It is bordered by Taylor, Jefferson, Wakulla, and Franklin ...

, an arm of the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

. It has a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

of in size. It has one significant

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

, the Wakulla River. A few miles south of its source the St. Marks passes under a natural bridge at

Natural Bridge Battlefield Historic State Park Natural Bridge Battlefield State Historic Site is a Florida State Park in Leon County, Florida. It is located roughly between the city of Tallahassee and the town of St. Marks. During the American Civil War, the Battle of Natural Bridge was fo ...

and then disappears underground to become a

subterranean river A subterranean river is a river that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground surface – one where the riverbed does not represent the surface of the Earth. It is distinct from an aquifer, which may flow like a river but is contained within a per ...

for about one-half mile. The river emerges at the St. Marks River Rise, a

first magnitude spring A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fres ...

with a discharge of 433cf/s, to pass over a stretch of rocks, forming

rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade'' ...

s. The incorporated town of St. Marks is located at the juncture of the Wakulla and St. Marks Rivers. To the north is the community of Newport. Between St. Marks and Newport is a small industrial area serviced by

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...

. The San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park and St. Marks lighthouse are located near the mouth of the river, while the City of Tallahassee's Sam O. Purdom Generating Plant is located on the river in St. Marks.

List of crossings

References

* Marth, Marty. 1990. St. Marks River. in Marth, Del and Marty Marth, eds. ''The Rivers of Florida''. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. .
protectingourwater.org: St. Marks River Watershed

Emerging Waters: Springs of Northwest Florida

St. Marks River & Apalachee Bay Watershed
* tp://ftp.dep.state.fl.us/pub/labs/lds/reports/9683.pdf City Of Tallahassee Sam O. Purdom Generating Station Bodies of water of Jefferson County, Florida Bodies of water of Leon County, Florida Rivers of Florida Rivers of Wakulla County, Florida Outstanding Florida Waters Subterranean rivers of the United States {{Florida-river-stub