Come Take The Waters
9 million gallons per day
Ponce de Leon's Fabled
"Fountain of Youth"
The Springs
INTERNATIONAL SPA, RESORT AND
WELLNESS INSTITUTE
Warm Mineral Springs, Florida - USA
 87 Degrees Year-Round Highest Mineral Content In The World Warm Mineral Springs
"Ahhhhhhhhhh"

History

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 The Springs is a water-filled, hour-glass shaped sinkhole. It is about 80 yards in diameter and 230 feet deep where warm, heavily mineralized water enters from regions far below. Some years ago it was developed into a spa. Now, visitors come from around the world to soak in its rejuvinating water.

A curiosity of The Springs is the the water contains no dissolved oxygen, except at a layer 15 or 20 feet thick at the surface, where some garfish and a few minnows manage to live. Anything organic that gets into The Springs will stay as is it for an exceedingly long time, or until some human researcher finds it.

A huge cone of debris at the bottom of the sinkhole consists of everything that has ever fallen in, beginning with fragments of limestone that roofed the area and then collapsed perhaps 20,000 years ago.

Some say The Springs was the spot Ponce de Leon searched for, fought for and died for, believing that here, indeed, was the Fountain of Youth.

Paleo-Indian Slays A Mammoth
In 1973, a scientist named Wilburn A. Cockrell brought up a nearly complete skeleton of an adult Paleo-Indian male from the 43 foot level of The Springs. Peat surrounding the skeleton was dated at 11,000 years old. No earlier intentional burial site has been found in North America.
 
 
Saber Tooth Cat Analysis of the skeleton put the Paleo-Indian's height at about five feet four inches and suggested a weight of 110 pounds.
 
 
Bones of Ice Age land mammals, a saber-tooth cat and a giant ground sloth, still lie below. The saber cat and a human mandible were found in a clay layer 12,000 years old and the find was the best evidence that the two species coexisted in the Western Hemisphere.

Visitors can learn more about the history of The Springs at the free Cyclorama presentation that takes place every day at 1:00 PM.

GENERAL ADMISSION ............................$10.00
SPECIAL DISCOUNT ADMISSION .........$  8.00
(AAA OR AARP)
CHILDREN UNDER 12 YEARS ...............$  2.00
BOOK OF 10 TICKETS .............................$70.00