Hello Waterboy,
I have done a lot of looking around for you. Here's a brief synopsis
of my findings:
In May of 1539 De Soto made landing on a bay ("ten leagues west of the
Bay of Juan Ponce") and named it Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit) because
he got there on May 25, the Feast of the Pentecost.
One week before, "on May 18th, he discovered Espiritu Santo Springs or
"Springs of the Holy Spirit" where the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa is
located today."
De Soto did indeed believe that this was the Fountain of Youth, but,
no one since has proven or disproven his claim. In fact, it seems
that most of the academic research on the Fountain of Youth deals with
Ponce de Leon and De Soto is rarely mentioned.
However, that didn't stop good ol' American capitalism from exploiting
the Espiritu Santo Springs. "In the early 1900's, this water was
actually bottled and shipped worldwide and the five springs (over
which bottling works were built) were individually identified...".
The five springs are now known as: Beauty Springs, Stomach Springs,
Liver Springs, Kidney Springs, and Pure Water Springs. Each spring is
named for the particular attribute it is said to have helped, ie,
Stomach Springs is said to have cured stomach ulcers and indigestion.
The five springs are now channeled into one source which feed the
Safety Harbor Spa (www.safetyharborspa.com).
I looked for documentaries and other academic research on Safety
Harbor, Espiritu Santo Springs, and the Fountain of Youth. However,
none were specific to Espiritu Santo springs. They all seemed to be
about Florida springs in general (www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/springs/)
or, again, about Ponce de Leon.
For some reason, www.safetyharborspa.com is not loading right now, so,
I'll clarify my answer if any new information is provided by that
site.
I searched google.com using various search terms including, "Fountain
of Youth," "Espiritu Springs," "Espritu Springs," "De Soto," "De Soto
Fountain of Youth," "De Soto Espiritu Springs," "Safety Harbor
Florida," etc. I also searched various University of Florida on-line
libraries to no avail.
In summary, it seems that Espiritu Springs is now more of a tourist
destination with "mythical" healing powers, than a potentially "real"
Fountain of Youth.
I hope this helps, and, like I said, I'll clarify the answer if I find
out any new info. May the search for the Fountain of Youth continue!
Resources:
http://www.clemclay.com/ES.index.html
http://www.archeologyinc.org/soto.html
PS - Although it has nothing to do with De Soto, here is a very
interesting (if unfounded) story about a potential fountain of youth:
http://www.lithiumsprings.com/schorep/screp5.htm |
Clarification of Answer by
lunabean-ga
on
02 Apr 2003 09:30 PST
Hello again,
I heard back from Dr. James Cusick of the University of Florida today
(you can see his full message below). He provided some good leads,
the most accessible of which is this link:
http://fulltext.fcla.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=fhp&idno=SF00000175&format=jpg
This is a great resource for all things about Espiritu Santo Springs.
It has a history, info about the water, testimonials, clippings from
the press, songs/poems about the springs, etc. It is quite
interesting.
I am still looking to see if there has ever been a documentary about
it. Also, as per the suggestion of Dr. Cusick, I have written the
University of South Florida Library to see if they have any additional
information.
The hunt continues...
Here's the full text of Dr. Cusick's e-mail:
Well, there is this one from 1910, don't know how accurate it would be
though. You might want to try USF. Our collection does not seem to
have a
recent (1990s) history of Safety Harbor or Pinellas County. Or you
can
check the Clayton, Knight, Moore edition of the DeSoto chronicles and
Jerald
T. Milanich's recent works (history and archaeology) on the DeSoto
entrada
in Florida.
Jim Cusick
-----CITATION 01 OF 01 -----
Title: Espiritu Santo Springs, (Springs of the Holy Spirit), on old
Tampa
Bay, Near Tampa, Florida <electronic resource>.
Edition: Illustrated ed.
Published: Near Tampa, Fla. : Espiritu Santo Springs, 1910.
Description: 75 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Series: Florida heritage collection.
Alternate title(s): Springs of the Holy Spirit
Notes: Cover title.
Reproduction note: Electronic reproduction. <Florida>: Florida Board
of
Education, Division of Colleges and Universities, PALMM Project, 2002.
Florida heritage collection
Subjects, general: Safety Harbor (Fla.)--History.
Tampa Bay (Fla.)--History.
Other author(s), etc.: PALMM (Project)
Electronic access: http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/dl/SF00000175.jpg
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/dl/SF00000175.pdf
|
Clarification of Answer by
lunabean-ga
on
08 Apr 2003 13:21 PDT
Hello, again, WB,
I just heard back from the Florida History Museum. It may be too
late, but here's the info I received:
Thank you for your recent e-mail concerning the Fountain of youth as
it
relates to the springs in Safety Harbor, Florida. Basically, most
historians now question that this legend was the reason why Juan Ponce
de
Lyon. One of the better, on-line essays on the subject can be found at
http://www.progress.org/fountain.htm . I also looked at the primary
accounts of De Soto's journey through that area, but did not find
anything
that specially mentioned Espiritu Santo springs. There has been a
well
known spa at the Safety Harbor springs for many years whose
propriotors may
have unearthed an account of a fountain of youth. Their web site is
http://www.safetyharborspa.com/ . Warm Mineral Springs in South
Florida
also boasts of being the real "Fountain of Youth." You can find their
web
site at http://ourworld.cs.com/lostfountain/intro.htm . For another
source
just on the wildlife in Florida springs, you may want to check out
this
website http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/springs/ .
Good luck!
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