The spring is located on the east bank of the Suwannee River north of Suwannee River State Park. Water flows strongly from a cavern opening in the limestone bank. Recent research suggests this site, which has an average output of 92 cubic feet per second (nearly 60 million gallons a day), is the outflow point of Falmouth Spring, a karst window several miles to the south.

Some believe this spring was named because of its high flow (the name would suggest so and since the line needs replacing quite often). However, it was orignally named by Guy Bryant and Lee Sams after their second dive theres. After surfacing Guy to Lee "man, this place is a real line eater" (meaning that they had layed quite a bit of line in just two dives in this totally unexplored system). They both liked the name so they named it that. At the time the spring was owned by Bernice Warner. He did not have a name for it so Guy asked him if it was OK to name it Lineater. Warner had no problem with the name and said it was OK by him.

A few years ago, Lineater was renamed to Stevenson Spring in honor of Jim Stevenson, the chair of the Florida Springs Task Force and the state