SILVER SPRINGS: THE FLORIDA INTERIOR IN THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION By THOMAS R. BERSON A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 Thomas R. Berson 2 To Mom and Dad Now you can finally tell everyone that your son is a doctor. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my entire committee for their thoughtful comments, critiques, and overall consideration. The chair, Dr. Jack E. Davis, has earned my unending gratitude both for his patience and for putting me—and keeping me—on track toward a final product of which I can be proud. Many members of the faculty of the Department of History were very supportive throughout my time at the University of Florida. Also, this would have been a far less rewarding experience were it not for many of my colleagues and classmates in the graduate program. I also am indebted to the outstanding administrative staff of the Department of History for their tireless efforts in keeping me enrolled and on track. I thank all involved for the opportunity and for the ongoing support. The Ray and Mitchum families, the Cheatoms, Jim Buckner, David Cook, and Tim Hollis all graciously gave of their time and hospitality to help me with this work, as did the DeBary family at the Marion County Museum of History and Scott Mitchell at the Silver River Museum and Environmental Center. David Breslauer has my gratitude for providing a copy of his book. Dalton Delan provided unparalleled assistance in proofreading this work, and he did so voluntarily. Countless unknown or overlooked staff members at various libraries provided invaluable assistance, not only at the University of Florida‘s campus facilities and collections, but also at the State Library and Archives of Florida in Tallahassee, and also at countless other institutions around the country thanks to the Interlibrary Loan system. Further, the many unsung people and parties who have helped scan and archive materials at various institutions for electronic retrieval made this project infinitely easier and can not be thanked enough. Likewise, numerous people who I have never 4 met in person have my undying gratitude for all manner of technical support related to this project. Technology has been as much an enemy at times as it has been an ally in this work. I would also like to thank John Soety for his ongoing inspiration and encouragement that one day I ―really should learn some history.‖ The entire Bergren clan deserves special thanks, as does the ―Jean George Experience,‖ for showing me aspects of Florida so bizarre that Carl Hiassen would shake his head in disbelief. Countless other friends and acquaintances have also kept me on track and on my toes in pursuit of this project, often simply by asking if I ever planned on finishing this dissertation. Finally, the lovely and talented Lauren Sonis has remained inexplicably supportive and tolerant throughout. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 9 2 WET AND WILD: THE FLORIDA LANDSCAPE ..................................................... 28 3 THE WILDERNESS AND THE DESERT: 1513-1825 ............................................. 50 4 A LAND IN LIMBO, 1825-1860 ............................................................................... 81 5 PARADISE DISCOVERED, 1865-1895 ................................................................ 112 6 A LAND FORGOTTEN: THE TURN OF THE CENTURY ..................................... 146 7 PARADISE REDISCOVERED: 1924-WORLD WAR II ......................................... 175 8 PARADISE REVISITED: THE POSTWAR YEARS .............................................. 216 9 PARADISE CONSTRUCTED: 1960-80 ................................................................ 239 10 AN UNDEFINED FUTURE, 1980 TO THE PRESENT .......................................... 272 11 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 293 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 299 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 330 6 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy SILVER SPRINGS: THE FLORIDA INTERIOR IN THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION By Thomas R. Berson August 2011 Chair: Jack E. Davis Major: History This dissertation examines how the interior and coastal parts of Florida have redefined each other and, in doing so, reshaped how they have been perceived and encountered in the American tourist experience. By examining the history of Silver Springs and the surrounding areas from the Spanish period to the present, the work explores the concept of interior space in the American imagination. While Florida is best known for its resort communities and beaches, at one time the coast, other than a handful of seaports, was of secondary importance economically and culturally either to Florida or to its visitors and immigrants. Silver Springs, for example, was the state‘s first significant tourist attraction as well as the largest representative of the state‘s unsurpassed collection of freshwater springs. Long before beaches and resorts and theme parks defined Florida, nature did. The changing ways in which Americans have viewed nature has had an enormous impact on how they have interpreted their surroundings. In the case of Florida, those changing perceptions have led to interpretations of the Florida interior as both wasteland and fountain, wilderness and garden. Throughout, the Florida interior has remained a critical lens through which 7 Americans have viewed Florida, and through which Florida has reimagined and reinvented itself. In the nineteenth century, Florida was known through literary and artistic depictions and in travelers‘ journals for its interior nature—springs, wetlands, hardwood hammocks, its fertile soils, and the wildlife that inhabited these places. Interior Florida was a principal subject of art and literature (visited by the most important writers and artists of the late nineteenth century), and a subject of much discussion among policymakers and business entrepreneurs. Similar to the American West, it was a territory that had been tamed and its native peoples dispossessed of their lands. Still, it also entered the American imagination as more than mere frontier. Its history is the long story of the American relationship with the natural environment, the quest for individual prosperity, the emergence of a mass consumption culture, and the transition to a post- World War II society increasingly defined by speed, technology, and artificiality. At the center of all this has been Silver Springs—unique ecosystem, natural resource (as defined by humans), riverside tourist attraction, roadside tourist attraction, movie and television set, modern theme park, and nostalgic natural place. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The first time I kayaked from the mouth of the Silver River to its springhead, Silver Springs, I was amazed at the beauty and tranquility of the experience. Other than the dull hum of the occasional power boater idling by and the decidedly out of place occasional chattering of rhesus monkeys along the shore (both twentieth-century additions to the local environment), the river was completely serene. Left alone to gaze down into the crystal clear water at long-nose gar and bluegill and to admire the great blue heron and wood storks stalking along the shore, I imagined myself in the Florida of the eighteenth century, a latter-day William Bartram alone in an undiscovered country. As I approached the springhead, however, I was surprised and annoyed by the growing sound of country music. Who, I wondered, could be blaring a radio that loudly without suffering the wrath of the authorities or fellow boaters? When I emerged into the springhead, I was amazed at the incongruous scene I had come upon. Amidst a now carnival-like atmosphere of rides and attractions, I had, for all intents and purposes, paddled into an Oak Ridge Boys concert. Having approached Silver Springs from the river, I had not been aware that the springhead was the site of a 57-acre theme park of exhibits, rides, and even a concert venue. I had passed within two miles of this place dozens of times, traveling between Tallahassee and DeLand, but State Road 326, two miles east of the attraction looped around Ocala and connected with Interstate 75 to the north, bypassing the attraction altogether. I had seen signs along the road for Silver Springs, but I had assumed that it was an incorporated area (it is not) and, having lived near Silver Spring, Maryland, (where there is not even a spring to be found) I paid them no mind. I had never heard of the Silver Springs attraction 9 before I moved to Florida, nor had I heard any mention of it during my then-seven years as a resident here. For all I knew it was, like Alexander Springs, Juniper Springs, and a host of other spring-fed rivers I had visited,