TRAVEL
The river, sweeping out of the spring basin toward the Gulf
of 4e5ico, is shadowed with the blues, greens and purples of
a peacock’s tail. Eel grass undulates as bream, mullet and
catfish cruise through the water. lligators cool themselves
in the mud on the banks, their old, cold eyes watching.
nhingas dive for their dinner, then perch on riverside
branches with their wings e5tended, drying their feathers.
8erons, aloof as supermodels, wade among the pickerelweed
15
and cardinal 9ower as osprey glide over the tops of the
silvery, moss-draped cypress.
Wakulla Springs, one of the largest freshwater springs in
the world, was the final resting place for a smorgasbord of
Florida’s prehistoric critters: giant sloths, giant armadillos, a
weird variety of ur-camel and, of course, mastodons–lots of
mastodons. In the !#)s, paleontologists hauled a whole
mastodon skeleton out of the springs. It’s been glued back
together and now points its massive tusks at visitors to the
state museum in Tallahassee.
The conquistadors arrived in the <th century, looking for
gold and emeralds. They found instead the tall, fierce
palachee, descendants of people who had lived around the
springs for +,))) years. Tycoon Ed Ball, who bought the
springs and built a fau5 Spanish hunting lodge there in =">,
claimed Wakulla was the original Fountain of outh. Ball,
founder of the St. ?oe 3ompany and once Florida’s largest
landowner, said ?uan Ponce de 2eon “discovered” Wakulla
Springs in # ", then died there of blood poisoning: at dinner
parties Ball would show guests a blood-stained arrow
supposedly shot by an palachee warrior into the
hidalgo’s thigh.
Ed Ball’s hunting
lodge is still there on the
banks of the springs: it’s
a hotel now, with arched
windows looking out
over grassy lawns planted
with old pink and
coral azaleas, and down
to the river where boats
wait to take visitors on
the famous ?ungle
3ruise. 8igh pecky
cypress beams painted
with pink 9amingos,
snowy egrets and fanciful
images of Spanish
galleons preside over
the great hall. On one
ycoon d all ought the springs and
uilt a lodge in 1934.
wall hangs a movie poster showing a scaly, web-pawed fishman
dragging a screaming girl out of the water: 3reature
from the Black 2agoon was filmed at Wakulla Springs in
=#>. In the A")s and A>)s, a bunch of Tarzan adventures starring
?ohnny Weismuller and 4aureen O’Sullivan were made
at the springs–on the ?ungle 3ruise, they’ll show you
Tarzan’s tree angling out over the river, and the vines he
swung from, hollering for all he’s worth.
The restaurant serves Old South delicacies: grouper,
shrimp, homemade coleslaw and sublime fried chicken. No
fried gator, though: at Wakulla Springs they’re kind of sensitive
about alligators. 4aybe because they share the river
all uilt this fau5 Spanish hunting lodge. t6s now used as a hotel, with rooms starting at $85 per night.
S WA,-A A , AG