Celebrating Sacred Ground

Although Dr. Franklin Branch sought to build a health spa near the healing waters of Manatee Mineral Springs, conflict during the Third Seminole War kept that dream from coming to fruition. But the cultural and historical value of the spring was so great, I included it in my book "Florida's Healing Waters." This account of my visit to the Angola Festival at the spring did not make it into the final manuscript. 

On a steamy weekend in July 2018,  a three-day festival commemorated Manatee Mineral Spring’s connection to the community of Red Bays in the Bahamas. Residents of Red Bays, which is located on Androse Island, the largest island in the Bahamas, were on hand to give the gathering a distinctive Bahamian flair with island food, music, crafts, and performances by a colorful junkanoo band. it is very possible that these Bahamans were the descendants of Blacks who fled the area in 1821 when forces led by Andrew Jackson destroyed the settlement. 

Speakers from the different organizations who helped create the Angola Festival took turns at the microphone, expressing gratitude and taking a noticeably spiritual tone. A local politician marked the occasion as a new beginning built from the adversity of those who came before.

For me, the highlight of the event, however, was a panel discussion by the archeologists and historians who had worked so hard to uncover Angola’s past.  Historian Cantor Brown, Jr. set the tone for the discussion by proclaiming that the location of the festival should be considered sacred ground and that the Angola settlement was once a bright “beacon of freedom” for people fleeing persecution. Cultural anthropologist Dr. Rosalyn Howard offered observations from the year she spent in Red Bays while working on her book “Looking for Angola” – a study of the residents of a tiny town in the Bahamas that was created by fleeing residents of Angola. Anthropologist Sherry Robinson Svekis talked about the process of applying to the National Park Service for official recognition as an Underground Railroad site and New College Archeologist Uzi Baram revealed the discoveries made in the park that led them to the conclusion that the area surrounding Manatee Mineral Springs was the location of the Back Seminole settlement of Angola. The panel was skillfully moderated by “Looking for Angola” project director Vickie Oldham, who helped reveal that the discovery of Angola was a combination of high-tech science and providence. An underground mapping method called radar tomography was used to determine the “ground truth,” so that the archeologists knew where to dig. They found postholes that indicated they were in the right spot, and previous digs had discovered items from the early nineteenth century such as shards of British pottery and clay pipes. This was physical evidence of a settlement before settler Josiah Gates arrived. But the identification of Angola might not have occurred had Tampa-based Witten Technologies, the company that donated the radar tomography service, not been looking for a place to show-off its high-tech equipment. Their offer to demonstrate their services was “total serendipity” according to Svekis.

Dr. Brown asserted that early Seminole communities in Florida acted as trading posts for other Native American tribes who came south in the winter, much like modern-day Snowbirds. The colorful plumes worn in headdresses seen in portraits and photographs of other tribes were often collected from birds in Florida. It was fertile hunting grounds, rather than the healing waters that attracted these early visitors to the region.

I learned a great deal from this panel, but perhaps my greatest take away was that we have just scratched the surface in our understanding of this community located near present-day Bradenton. It will be exciting to watch for new developments at this small, out-of-the-way spring in Manatee County. Perhaps one day the spring itself will be restored, revealing the role this sacred water has played in our state’s history. 

Archival photograph from the Manatee County Public Library

Archival photograph from the State Archives of Florida

Archival photograph from the Manatee County Public Library

Archival photograph from the Manatee County Public Library

A Winter Eden for Victorian-era Visitors

Twenty-first century Florida is a casual place – flip flops, tank tops, and shorts are accepted as appropriate attire for almost any situation. The amount of skin revealed at the beach is quite generous and thongs are considered adequate bathing attire. I have observed that when images of Victorian tourists in outdoor situations in Florida are posted on social media, invariably comments are made regarding the significant amount of clothing worn by these visitors. A typical comment is "how did they not pass out wearing stuff like that?" or "I would be miserable wearing that in the heat humidity." See comments on the image above. 

State Archives of Florida

State Archives of Florida

State Archives of Florida

Travelers to our state in the Gilded Age were restricted by rigid, judicious standards of dress (and long sleeves were added protection against the ever-present mosquitoes.) Plus pale skin was considered desirable as those with tans generally were outdoor laborers and freckles were unwelcome for proper Victorian ladies. Another factor in the inordinate amount of clothing was that initially, many of the visitors to the state were not in robust health, as many came to the Sunshine State as invalids, and they dressed like it.

But the main reason that so many early visitors to Florida were covered in clothing, from the top of their head to bottom of their heals, was that the overwhelming majority of visitors to the state came during the winter months.

A Place for Consumptives

Tuberculosis, what Victorians called consumption, was the plague of the nineteenth century, and although Robert Koch identified the bacteria that caused the disease in 1882, it was not effectively diminished until the 1950s. In Europe during the nineteenth century, one in four deaths were attributed to tuberculosis and the sanatorium movement emerged because people believed fresh air and taking the waters could bring relief from this disabling disease. Many of Florida's first visitors were sent south by doctors who thought Florida's sunshine and healing waters might help their patients. As early as 1823, just a couple years after Florida was transferred to the United States from Spain, a book called "Observations Upon the Floridas" touted that the climate was good for patients of "consumptive habit" and the physicians should send invalids to Florida in winter rather than "an expensive journey to the south of France and Italy." Eventually, the percentage of invalid travelers diminished and the amount of leisure visitors increased, but the state was originally perceived as America's sanatorium. 

America's Winter Resort

The Florida winter travel business began before the Civil War as hostilities between the U.S. Government and the Seminoles diminished, and advancements in travel made to easier for leisure travelers to get to Florida. Steamers began to travel to North Florida from New York in the 1840s. From Jacksonville, riverboats could take visitors as far south as Enterprise in present-day Volusia County. The Civil War temporarily suspended travel, but when peace came so did the visitors from the north. In the 1870s, the railroad made its way to the state, and according to Floyd and Marion Rinhart, authors of "Victorian Florida: America's Last Frontier," the 1880s brought an intense rivalry between rail and ship routes to Florida.

According to the Rinharts, the last two weeks of February and the first two weeks of March were initially the most popular times of the year, but eventually, the season expanded to include most of the winter and much of spring. But even as people came for the favorable climate and salubrious sunshine, there were plenty of cold days. And much of the travel around the turn of the century was in the northern part of the state, which is considerably cooler than the central and southern Florida. On February 13, 1899, temperatures dipped to 2 degrees below zero in Tallahassee. Jacksonville chronicler T. Frederick Davis wrote that the lowest temperature ever recorded in Jacksonville was on February 8, 1835 when it fell to 8 degrees and “scarcely a winter passes without a temperature at some time as low as freezing.”

Freeze in Melbourne, Feb. 8, 1890

The Great Freeze

Another great example of just how cold it could be in Florida was the state's "Great Freeze" – actually two separate freezes in the winter of 1894-95. When the first freeze hit on December 29, 1894 – temperatures of 18 degrees in Orlando killed the citrus. Many of the mature orange trees survived, however, but a second freeze on February 7, 1895 wiped out groves across the state. It took decades for the citrus industry to rebound and large scale citrus production never returned to North Florida.

Rockledge grove of Alfred Trafford after the freeze (State Archives of Florida)

Winter Cities in a Summer Land
Despite these occasional cold temperatures, Florida's reputation as the go-to place for those seeking solace from northern winters only increased as the state developed. In the summertime, well-to-do Victorians flocked to northern vacation spots like Cape May, Atlantic City, Martha's Vineyard, and Newport. In winter Palm Beach and Miami were popular, thanks in large part to Henry Flagler. Advertising for his Florida East Coast Railway helped create an image of Florida as a tropical paradise, especially in winter.

Marketing has always been a big part of luring people to the Sunshine State in winter, so what better way to get people to come to your town, than have winter right in your town's name? Central Florida has Winter Park, Winter Garden, Winter Springs, and Winter Haven. The Interlachen Winter Resort Company promoted "winter homes in a summer land" in efforts to sell real estate in Interlachen, Florida in 1887. A pamphlet from the same era created by the Fort George Island Company bragged that despite a few chilly days in December, the winter was mostly "mellow, golden days" and that their island climate was far more invigorating than that of the mainland.

State Archives of Florida

Bathing in Winter

Many of the images of Victorians in Florida that receive Facebook comments about our "over-dressed" visitors show people at the beach. One of the biggest draws for visitors to our state in winter was its waters. Our beaches attracted sea bathers and springs, which seem freezing to us today at 72 degrees, were actually considered hot springs! But if you consider the air temperature outside was much colder, the water might actually feel comfortable. 

So the next time you see an image of Gilded Age travelers in the Sunshine State clad in far too many clothes, note that these are individuals following the fashions of the day and it might actually be a chilly winter day at the beach! 

This ad for the Clarendon House refers to the "Green Cove Warm Sulphur Spring"

You can learn more about the Gilded Age in Florida in my second book, Florida's Healing Waters. You can pre-order the book from the publisher's website; it will likely ship sometime in August.

Hold the Line: Sea Bathing in Florida

The beaches of Florida have been in the news quite a bit lately. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has wrestled with whether to keep them open for exercise and recreation or shut them down as a way of enforcing social distancing. Images of crowded beaches full of spring breakers reinforced the absurdity of the governor's early policy to limit the spread of the virus. "The beaches are the state’s definitive cultural, physical asset and economic asset" stated an article in the Tampa Bay Times that reviewed the state's inconsistent policies of beach closures.

But to Florida's first visitors of European descent, its beaches were not considered an asset at all – there are no accounts of 16th century Spaniards shedding their armor to bask in their new colony's sun and surf. But near the dawn of the 20th century, Florida's salubrious seashore began to be developed, and one of the primary reasons was that it was believed that sea bathing was beneficial for one's health. Victorian-era bathers, somewhat timidly, eased their way into the surf, even if they didn't know how to swim.

The Power of Water
By the time that Europeans reached the New World, they had a complex relationship with the sea and water itself, recognizing it both as the substance that sustained life and a force that could have incredible destructive qualities. Early civilizations attributed water's power to spiritual entities living beneath the waves, and ancient cultures both feared and revered water. In "The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth" by Lena Lencek and Gideon Bokser, they describe ancient man's relationship with the beach as a "liminal space of encounters between Manichean forces of good and evil: between earth and water, man and nature, the civil and the savage, life and death." In order to see the beach as a source of recreation and restoration, man had to first "shed the shackles of mythology" and perhaps, more importantly, the concept of free time, "the most radical and most elusive of human commodities," had to be invented.

"Mythical monsters swarmed in the depths of the seas,
preying on sailors and unwary swimmers" according to Lencek and Bosker

The practice of visiting the beach for health and leisure originated in the eighteenth century and was the result of two developments. The first was the Grand Tour, where well-to-do gentlemen re-discovered the culture of the ancient world while touring the European continent. The second development that led to sea bathing was the ancient practice of taking the waters by soaking in and drinking water from mineral springs. The 18th-century saw an eruption of elaborate spas at mineral springs that led to a culture of bathing throughout Europe at places such as Bath, England, and Spa, Belgium.

"The sons of elite English families of the 17th,18th, and early 19th centuries often spent two to four years traveling around Europe as an extension of their education to broaden their horizons and learn about language, architecture, geography, and culture in an experience known as the Grand Tour." - Antique Almanac

Spa, Belgium: figures making their way towards the Pouhon mineral fountain, 1762.

The Evolution of Sea Bathing
Bathing in seawater for medicinal purposes originated at the seaside town of Scarborough on England's northeastern coast. While sea-loving cultures of Mediterranean often reveled in recreational pursuits at the beach, it was a novel idea to enter the sea intentionally in the cold, murky waters of England. But when sea bathing for healthful purposes became the vogue in the 1700s, the coast of Britain was bursting with seaside resorts in places like Brighton, Weymouth, Margate, and Blackpool. The phenomena spread beyond Britain, according to Lencek and Bokser, and the monopoly of the "therapeutic British beach was gradually challenged along the Atlantic seashore." That included seaside resorts in Belgium, Holland, France, and eventually the United States. Bathing machines – covered wagons pulled into the surf – allowed female bathers to enter the water with a degree of modesty (while male bathers often swam naked.) These were popular in England in the nineteenth century as few well-to-do ladies knew how to swim. Attendants called "dippers" assisted bathers in and out of the water.

"Mermaids at Brighton"

Bathing machine circa the 1920s

Sea Bathing in the New World
In the 1800s, Cape May on the Jersey shore became a popular destination to escape from crowded city-life in Philadelphia. Atlantic City appealed to the masses, while the elite found the beaches at places like Bar Harbor, Maine and Newport, Rhode Island more to their liking. Despite the fact that in the early 19th century, most upper-class individuals did not know how to swim, the phenomena of bathing machines was not popular in the States. Swimming was associated with"amusement and physical vigor" which was taboo unless it was undertaken for the purposes of "spiritual or mental development" according to religious beliefs of the period, claims author Jeff Wiltse in the book "Contested Waters." The author claims that the paradigm around swimming began to shift around the midcentury, as the growing middle class, as well as upper classes, started to spend time in seaside resorts and rural retreats dubbed "watering places." With the industrial revolution came increased leisure time and it became acceptable to travel for pleasure and recreation, a concept heretofore unheard of. In America, social reforms were linked to health movements and the then-novel idea of eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly became popular, preached by reformers such as Dr. Harvey Kellogg at his Battle Creek Sanitarium. Bathing and swimming were considered desirable, healthy pursuits.

The bathe at Newport  from Harper's Weekly, 1858

Breathing exercises at the Battle Creek Sanitarium

Discovering the Beaches of Florida
Florida's early cities developed at sites where there were good safe harbors for sailing vessels, but until the 19th century, most of the coastline was underutilized at it was seen to possess little value for agriculture or commerce. Key West, St. Augustine, and Pensacola were the most populated cities, and they all were believed to possess therapeutic waters for sea bathing. But it wasn't until after the Civil War, when northerners started venturing into the state in large numbers to escape harsh winters, that the state's coasts started being seen as an asset. The elegant seaside resorts created along the Atlantic by Henry Flagler, helped establish Florida as the "American Riviera."

Advertising published by the Florida East Coast Railway

Winter bathing is featured in this FEC Railway brochure

Sea bathing, (also called surf bathing), was an essential part of the appeal of these Gilded Age retreats, and photos of the beach from this era show the popularity of the beach. What is also evident, is that despite the growth of popularity in swimming, many of the visitors to the beach were inexperienced swimmers at best. "Lifeguard observation towers, cork-filled life belts, and the surf reel–a giant spool of strong rope– became standard pieces of surfside equipment, "writes Lencek and Bosker. In photos of the beaches at Flagler's Palm Beach resorts produced by the Detroit Publishing Co., safety lines are evident extending far into the surf. Based on postcards and photos of this time period, these safety lines were a critical part of the beach experience, offering means for bathing to those who could not swim. Safety lines are often seen in images of springs where visitors took the waters as well. Eventually, as the popularity of swimming grew, Flagler built saltwater pools surrounded by bathing casino structures and staffed by swimming instructors.

A postcard shows safety line extending into the surf in Miami

The safety line extends across the image from left to right

Note the safety line featured in this image from Palm Beach

Sea bathers in Pensacola (FHS image)

At the dawn of the 20th century in Florida, carefully venturing into the therapeutic surf clutching a safety line was replaced by the practice of recreational swimming. Today, the beach is seen as a vital asset, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis re-opened the beaches he said it was important for people to have outlets for getting exercise, sunshine and fresh air. After centuries of being ignored, today the healthful energy of the beach is considered essential to the state's residents and its economy.

The history of sea bathing in the Sunshine State is further explored in my upcoming book, "Florida's Healing Waters," scheduled for publication this fall by the University Press of Florida.

Viva Florida 500: Mythbusters Edition

April 2,  2013 marks the 500th anniversary of Juan Ponce de Leon’s naming of Florida.  The commemoration of Ponce’s landing has been designated by our state as Viva Florida 500 and Florida’s history will be highlighted throughout the year.  But because our state’s rich past is often misunderstood and ignored, I’ve prepared 7 Florida historical nuggets to prepare you for 2013. See how many you already know.

Fact or Fiction: Ponce de Leon discovered Florida.

Fiction: At the time of Ponce’s arrival in Florida, it is estimated that close to a third of a million Native Americans already lived here. The Timucuan, Calusa, Apalachee, Ocalii and other tribes lived in Florida thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans. By the end of the 18th century, the last of these original Floridians, who had no immunity to the diseases brought by Europeans and enslaved Africans, were finally driven out of the state by the English and their Indian allies.

State Archives of Florida

Historians also believe that it is likely that other Europeans may have made unauthorized slaving expeditions into Florida before Ponce ever got here.

Fact or Fiction: Ponce de Leon was searching for the Fountain of Youth

Fiction: The origins of the Fountain of Youth legend can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and stories associated with Alexander the Great. While it is possible that Ponce had heard Indian legends of life-giving waters, the myth was not associated with Ponce until written accounts more than a decade after his passing. Historian Fernandez Oviedo, who seemed to have had a bone to pick with Ponce’s family, may have started the myth by writing that Ponce sought the fabled waters as a cure for impotence. In reality, Ponce was driven by the search for gold and glory.

Before landing in Florida, Ponce had become wealthy through agriculture and by supplying Indian labor for gold mining in Puerto Rico. When Columbus’s son Diego challenged his power, Ponce sought a charter from the King of Spain to explore the lands further north. In his two expeditions to Florida, Ponce encountered hostile natives, and was critically wounded on his second journey here and later died in Cuba.

Fact or Fiction: Ponce de Leon landed in St. Augustine

No one knows exactly where Ponce landed. St. Augustine has always made the claim to be where he came ashore based on a 17th century chronicle that says Ponce landed south of Ponte Vedra Beach. However a contemporary historian re-traced Ponce’s journey and landed near Melbourne Beach. Both sites now claim to be the site of Ponce’s first footsteps on land.  The truth is, we may never know, as there is no archaeological evidence of his landing.

Fact or Fiction: The English colony of Jamestown was the first settlement in the new world.

Fiction. St. Augustine was settled in 1565 by Pedro Menendez de Aviles. By the time the English landed at Plymouth Rock, the settlers in St. Augustine had children and grandchildren that were born in North America.  Historian Michael Gannon jokes that by the time Jamestown and Plymouth were settled “St. Augustine was up for urban renewal.”

Fact or Fiction: The Fountain of Youth attraction in St. Augustine is a fraud.

It depends on who your believe.

• Near the end of the 19th century, “Diamond Lil” McConnell uncovered a well on her St. Augustine property.

• Nearby was a rock cross with 15 vertical stones intersected by 13 stones horizontal stones. She believed it was a reference to the year of Ponce’s landing, 1513. She also claimed to have found a silver urn with a parchment inside that she thought confirmed the location as that of Ponce’s landing and the nearby well as the Fountain of Youth.

• In the early 1900s she opened her property as an attraction allowing visitors to drink the fabled water.

• After McConnell’s death the park passed to the Frazier family.

• In 1940s the Fraziers sued the Saturday Evening Post because the magazine asserted the property was not the Fountain of Youth. The Fraziers won the lawsuit and still own the park to this day.

• While historians agree the connection to the mythical Fountain of Youth is fabrication, the site has enormous archaeological value.

From the Florida State parks website

Fact or Fiction: St. Augustine was a destination of the Underground Railroad.

Fact: 100 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, escaped slaves fled the British Colonies and headed south to freedom in Florida.

• The Spanish granted the slaves freedom if they pledged allegiance to the King of Spain and converted to Catholicism. 

• The first free community of former slaves in the US was called Fort Mose (Moh-say). Just north of St. Augustine, the Fort was the first line of defense against the enemies of Spain.

Fact or Fiction: Members of the Seminoles Indians included escaped slaves

Fact: In the early 1700s the English began attacking the Spanish in Florida from their colonies in the Carolinas.

• They enlisted Indian tribes from outside the state to attack Spanish strongholds which included the remaining indigenous Indian settlements, many of who had converted to Catholicism while under Spanish rule.

• By the end of the century most of the native Indian population was wiped out and these tribes from further north, mostly Creek Indians, began to move into the state.

• These Indians, joined by escaped slaves, became autonomous and were called cimarrones by the Spanish, which means “runaway or wild ones”. This morphed into the term we use today, “Seminoles.”

• In the 19th century members of the tribe sought refuge in the Everglades, and today the descendants of these people live mostly in South Florida…

Coming full circle, just last Monday in South Florida, the Big Orange ball that drops to start the new year in Miami was renamed La Gran Naranja to honor Florida’s 500 year-old Spanish cultural heritage, and mark the beginning of 2013. Throughout the year, programs statewide will mark the anniversary of Ponce’s landing in La Florida.  

The above is an excerpt from a speech delivered last night to Toastmasters Chapter 1066, which meets on Monday nights at 6:45 at Legends Sports Bar on Orange Avenue in Orlando. In preparation for speaking events associated with my upcoming book release, I have been attending Toastmasters to improve my presentation skills.