Tarpon Springs Rich and Versatile History

Tallahasse, FL- Tarpon Springs, named by the early inhabitants for the abundant tarpon fish found in nearby waters, is an excellent place to vacation and enjoy the local color due to its rich and versatile history.  The history includes stories of Paleo-Indians, medicinal benefits of its mineral spring and the discovery of sponges off Florida's west coast which led to a profitable industry. You'll also have the opportunity to sample Greek cuisine with a homemade touch at some of the local owned restaurants.

The first people to enter Florida some 12,000 years ago were the Paleo-Indians following big game animals as a food source.  Two-thousand years later, the large ice age animals had disappeared.  Sea levels had begun to rise and people known as archaic hunter-gatherers hunted modern animals that exist today.  As their populations increased, they became more sedentary and formed settlements along the many rivers, lakes and newly formed estuaries.  The first pottery was introduced about 4,000 years ago and a more elaborate social structure developed 2000 years later.  These descendants of the first Floridians sometimes buried their dead in earthen mounds along with elaborate pottery and other goods.  One such mound, the Safford mound, was discovered in the late 1800s east of Pinellas Avenuenear the Anclote River in the area that would later become Tarpon Springs.  First excavated in 1879, the mound was more thoroughly investigated in 1896.  It contained more than 600 skeletons and a wide variety of pottery that represented changes in the lifestyle and culture of these prehistoric people.  Eventually, in the 1920s, the Safford Mound was partially razed to make room for real estate development.

In 1876, A. W. Ormond of South Carolina and his teenage daughter Mary built a cabin near Spring Bayou and became the first settlers of what is now Tarpon Springs.  One year later, Joshua Boyer, traveling alone on a voyage to see the world aboard his sloop, docked by the Ormond's cabin.  He fell in love with young Mary, married her and built the second cabin.  As the story has been told from generation to generation, it was actually Mary who suggested they name their tiny two-cabin settlement Tarpon Springs for the giant tarpon that jumped and splashed in the bayou.  This was the very beginning of Tarpon Spring's colorful evolution into a full-fledged city.

In 1881, a Florida agency, the Florida Internal Improvement Fund, was on the verge of bankruptcy when a wealthy Philadelphia manufacturer named Hamilton Disston rescued the agency with one of the biggest real estate deals ever.  Disston bought four million acres of Florida's fertile heartland for 25 cents per acre.  This included the area which would later become Tarpon Springs.  Disston surveyed and planned the city along the Anclote River where the river meets the Gulf of Mexico.  On February 12, 1887, Tarpon Springs became the first incorporated city on the Pinellas Peninsula.

That same year the Orange Belt Railway arrived in the city, with the right of way for the line donated by Hamilton Disston.  This advance in transportation changed the face of Tarpon Springs, and made it much easier to import and export both people and cargo.  The construction of Anclote Key lighthouse also advanced transportation by sea by making it safer to enter and exit the harbor.

With advances in transportation, Tarpon Springs became a popular winter resort for wealthy Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century.  The mild winters, sunshine, sea breezes and the smell of pines were said to work wonders for respiratory, nervous and digestive problems.  The town's reputation as a winter haven for the rich was further enhanced by the "medicinal" waters of the mineral springs bubbling up in Spring Bayou.  In the 1880s northerners built impressive Victorian homes around the area.  Each fall they escaped the northern winters and migrated to the area with their families to sail, fish, play golf and enjoy the plentiful natural habitat.

Although the winter migration of the early snowbirds had a big affect on the growth of Tarpon Springs, the discovery of the sponge off the shores of the community had the largest impact.  In 1873, turtle fishermen accidentally discovered sponge beds off the west coast of central Florida at the mouth of the Anclote River when sponges snagged their nets.  This discovery brought the dawning of a new industry for the area.

John King Cheyney, son of a rich Philadelphia Quaker, is credited with changing Tarpon Springs to "sponge town."  He managed his family's business, the Anclote River and Rock Island Sponge Company with offices in Philadelphia and Tarpon Springs.  Initially, sponges were harvested with the hook method by spongers which included many African Americans who worked as sponge hookers and crew men.  In time, he hired John Cocoris, a young Greek sponge buyer.  Cocoris was responsible for bringing his brothers and other Greek divers to Tarpon Springs.  With their advanced methods and equipment, these divers were able to harvest many more sponges.  An ad in a Greek newspaper seeking sponge divers brought some 500 people to Tarpon Springs from 1905 to 1906.  As more and more sponge beds were discovered more immigrants followed and Tarpon Springs was transformed into a replica of a Mediterranean port city with restaurants and markets.

Sponge-packing houses were built in the city.  To be marketed, sponges had to be thoroughly cleaned, dried and trimmed.  To aid in this process businessmen installed sponge presses and buyers started moving to town.  Gradually, the sponge business shifted its center from Key West, Cuba and the Bahamas to Tarpon Springs.  By 1900, the City was considered the largest sponge port in the United States.

In 1906, the Sponge Exchange Bank was established.  In 1907 the Sponge Exchange, which was an organized system for buying and grading sponges, was founded.  This system was established by the divers, boat builders, deck hands and buyers.  The Exchange consisted of storage bins around the perimeter with an auction block in the center.  Profits from sponging also f
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