Wall Springs Park is a natural springs park, named after the original owner of the property, Charles F. Wall. In 1927 the Wall family sold the springs to Harry W. Davis. Davis being an entrepreneur from New York changed the name to Health Springs. Davis printed handbills extolling that the waters “sooth and aid suffers of high blood pressure, bladder, kidney complications and inflammations of joints”. Davis purported another myth that Ponce de Leon discovered the springs and when he looked in the crystal clear water, he remarked that the silhouette of the springs vent reminded him of his wife. In 1949 Harry Davis sold the springs to the Cullen Family and they changed the name back to Wall Springs.
As Health Springs, the park was a popular place to indulge in rejuvenation, play and for many healing. The mineral springs were sometimes thought to be a fountain of youth, but it was used more as a playground for youth. The springs were unique because there appeared to be the outline of a woman’s head if one looked into the water at just the right angle. Some people say it is a trick of the light where the underground caves began. Others think it was haunted.
Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produce water containing minerals or other dissolved substances that alter its taste or give it a purported therapeutic value. Salts, sulfur compounds and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its underground passage. Mineral water obtained from mineral springs has long been an important commercial proposition.
For many centuries, in Europe, North America and elsewhere, commercial proponents of mineral springs classified them according to the chemical composition of the water produced and according to the medicinal benefits supposedly accruing from each:
Lithia springs contain lithium salts
Chalybeate springs contain iron salts
Sulfur springs contain hydrogen sulfide gas
Salt (saline) springs contain salts of calcium, magnesium or sodium
Thermal (hot) springs could contain a high concentration of various minerals
Calcic springs contain lime
Alkaline springs contain an alkali
Soda springs contain carbon dioxide gas (soda water)
Sweet springs are springs that contain no detectable sulfur or sale content
Alum springs contain alum
Radioactive springs contain traces of radioactive substances (radium or uranium)
The source of the mineral springs is the Upper Floridian Aquifer. The flow varies from zero during drought to a high of 7400 gallons per minute. During period of high rainfall as much as 10.7 million gallons of water can flow from the spring in one day. However the average water flow is 2900 gallons per minute or about 4.2 million gallons per day. The spring water temperature remains at a near constant 74 degrees.
The Floridian Aquifer system is divided into three regions, Upper, Middle and Lower. The Floridian aquifer system is a key source of potable water in the southeastern United States. Groundwater wells for water supply from the Floridian aquifer system were first drilled in the late 1800s. In the early 2000s, the Floridian aquifer system supports almost 10 million people as their primary source of water and is one of the most productive aquifers in the world.
To log a find for this EarthCache, please email furshore at the above address the answers to the following questions:
1. Estimate the depth of water in the pool area of the springs.
2. What type of springs is Wall Springs?
3. Pictures are welcome as long as they don’t contain any of the answers.
http://fl.water.usgs.gov/FASWAM/
http://www.pinellascounty.org/park/21_Wall_Springs.htm
http://patch.com/florida/palmharbor/a-historic-spa-right-here-in-palm-harbor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_spring
