I recently traded my typical “Sand and Surf Sunday” for a trip to Florida’s Warm Mineral Springs Park outside of North Port. As a little girl, I would often ask my parents if we could visit a natural mineral spring during our vacations to Wyoming and Colorado. Not only was I fascinated by the geological phenomenon each spring offered, I was also able to somehow recognize the benefit mineral springs often brought to my physical body when visitors were allowed in the waters.

For this, I blame Ponce de Leon and the fourth grade.

It’s funny what you remember from your earlier years. For me, I had grandiose and vivid imaginings around the early explorers of the Americas … Sir Francis Drake, Henry Hudson, Hernando de Soto and others captivated me as I considered what it might be like to sail across the ocean to explore a largely untouched and unpopulated land. Magellan, Sir Walter Raleigh — they’re all names which still bring thoughts of adventure and possibility to me, even all these years later.

However, Ponce de Leon and The Fountain of Youth top them all. Mind you, as a fourth grader, I never realized I was capable of swimming in the very waters which enchanted him hundreds of years earlier.

Warm Mineral Springs Park is an open spring, sits near 85 degrees year-round, and is the only natural spring in Florida. It’s listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and within its depths modern-day explorers have found evidence of humans, saber-toothed tigers, giant sloths, tortoises and even camels.

During my first float around the fountain, I began chatting with a local named Lauren. When she asked me about my job, she actually begged me NOT to write about the spring, for fear of it being overrun by tourists. I told her that might be giving me a little too much credit — but that I understood the simplicity of the spring and her desire to protect it.

I also gently argued with her because, clearly, the secret was already out! Hundreds of people were inside the park that day, and within the first hour I heard Russian, French, Spanish, German and, perhaps, Ukrainian. My new friend, Lauren, mentioned a large settlement of Russians and Ukrainians in the area and how the only other warm mineral spring of similar size and quality was located outside of Budapest, Hungary.

It all made sense to me. The overall feeling of wellness, relaxation and healing permeated this international destination as much as those whose toes stepped inside the spring itself. By the end of the day, my spirit was as buoyant as my body as I rested within the waters Ponce de Leon searched so hard to find.

It appears my time at The Fountain of Youth was actually the manifestation of a fantasy from my youth. And my dreamy day at the mineral spring was every bit as delightful and adventurous as my imagination’s.

— Carrie Cox, account executive