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Tarpon Springs is a city that is rich in history, heritage, and culture. At these coordinates, you will be standing in the heart of the Sponge Docks.
The first settlers in the area now known as Tarpon Springs were A.W. Ormond and his daughter, Mary. They arrived in 1876. They built a cabin near Spring Bayou. J.C. Boyer, an adventurer from Nassau, sailed into the Bayou. He and Mary Ormond were soon married.
In 1887, Tarpon Springs was incorporated. It had a population of 52 residents. John Cheney, a promoter associated with Disston, discovered money could be made by harvesting the sponges growing in the waters of the Gulf.
Although Tarpon Springs was successful as a resort, it wasn’t long before the sponge industry became the community’s most important industry. By 1890, the sponge industry was firmly established in Tarpon Springs.
The Cheney Sponge Company sold almost a million dollars worth of sponges that year. In the next few years, experienced divers from Greece were brought to Tarpon Springs. By using rubberized diving suits and helmets, they increased harvests.
By 1905, over 500 Greek sponge divers were at work using 50 boats. The early sponge divers created a need at the docks for eating places for the boat crews. Then as news of the industry grew, people began coming to the docks to see the sponges.
Shops opened so people could buy the sponges and other souvenirs. Sponge buyers created the Sponge Exchange in 1907. A building with a courtyard was erected in which each sponger could store his catch while awaiting the auctions that took place twice a week. With the perfection of deep-sea diving equipment, the dollar amount of sponge harvests continued to increase. Divers were able to go deeper into the sea for longer lengths of time.
For 30 years, the sponge industry was the largest industry in Florida—larger than citrus or tourism. Tarpon Springs was known as the “Sponge Capital of the World.” In the 1940s, blight reduced the growth of sponges. By the 1950s, sponging as a profitable industry was nearly wiped out.
However in the 1980s, new sponge beds were found. Now, Tarpon Springs is back to being a leader in the world’s natural sponge market. In addition to seeing the history of sponge harvesting, visitors can experience the Greek influence.
Many visitors attend Greek Festivals. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral was modeled after the great Byzantine cathedrals such as St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople and is open daily to visitors.
At this location, you will find the Apalachicola, which was used for sponging in the area until 1943, when it went into service for the Navy during World War II as an air-sea rescue boat in the Gulf of Mexico. It was returned to sponging after World War II. In 1982 it was decommissioned and renamed the Aegean Seas.
To claim credit for this Virtual, you will need to do just one thing:
Post a picture taken of yourself or your GPS (no faces are required) while standing in front of the boat to your found log. Please stand on the platform midship by the sign with the name of the boat.
Please, no photos from visits previous to the date published. You need a new visit to log a find.
If you do not post your picture within a reasonable time, your log will be deleted.
PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL OR MESSAGE ME WITH YOUR PICTURE! I look at every log, so do NOT message me with the picture. If the picture is with your log, you do not need to message me with the picture. Post it with your log.
So to put it simply, if you do not upload a picture to your log, your found log will be deleted without any notice.
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Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.