Tarpon Springs Area Hstorical Society Depot Museum CD Presentation

Suggested ReadingOnce Upon a Bayou: The Life & Legacy of Tarpon Springs Pioneer, G.E. Noblit, Sr., by Jill Noblit MacGregor

Images of Rail: Railroading in Pinellas County, by Vincent Luisi

Tarpon Springs, Florida, Black America Series, by Sandra W. Rooks and Carol Mountain

Images of America: Tarpon Springs, by Dolores Kilgo

Celebrating Community, Tarpon Springs: Reflections on 125 Years, edited by Genevieve Crosby, Phyllis Kolianos, Kathleen Monahan, Ph.D., and Cynthia Tarapani

Tarpon Springs Florida: The Early Years, by Gertrude K. StoughtonLinks to Additional Historic ResourcesTarpon Springs Heritage Museum

Safford House Museum

Anclote Key Preserve State ParkSources Used and/or Consulted"Hamilton Disston Found Dead." New York Times, May 1 1896.Cobb, John N. "The Sponge Fishery of Florida." Scientific American Supplement LVII, no. 1472 (1904): pp 23581-23583.Crosby, Genevieve, Phyllis Kolianos, Kathleen Monahan, and Cynthia Tarapani, eds. Celebrating Community: Tarpon Springs, Reflections on 125 Years, 2013.DeGregory, Lane. "Who in the World Is Panfilo De Narvaez - and Why Should We Care?" Tampa Bay Times, April 17 2008.Florida Center for Instructional Technology, "Exploring Florida: Florida's Historic Places: Tarpon Springs", College of Education, University of South Florida http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~tbeaureg/Agroculture.html (2014).

Horchy, Eric. "Climb Lighthouse with Friends of Anclote Key." Tampa Tribune, April 26 2013.

201019941987March, 1987. The last train runs from Tarpon Springs to Dunedin.

You see, my boy, trains played a very important part in this countrys history. Why, without trains, Tarpon Springs might not even exist today!

Tarpon Springs Depot 1915Educator click to continue

Lets use the WAYBAC to find out, my boy.

First stop, 12,000 years ago.

Why were trains so important, Mr. Peabody?Tarpon Avenue looking west1775149112000 years ago

No one knows the names of the people who first lived in Florida or fished its waters. Archaeologists tell us that some might have lived along Floridas Gulf Coast as much as 12,000 years ago. They call these people Paleo-Indians - the very first residents of the Americas. Silver Springs Mammoth, courtesy of Florida TravelerArchaeologists learned about the Paleo-Indians from the tools they left behind. They made their tools from a glass-like stone called chert - the strongest stone they could find in the western part of what would become Florida.

Photo courtesy of Florida Museum of Natural HistoryAs time passed, the climate grew warmer, and as the great glaciers in the north melted, the level of the oceans rose, covering much of coastal Florida where the Paleo-Indians had lived.

Gee, Florida was a lot bigger back then!Image courtesy of Florida Fisheries Science Blog

The warmer climate made life easier for fish and shellfish, however, so by around 4,500 years ago, Native Floridians lived comfortably on a diet of fish, clams, and oysters, no longer required to follow the game animals they had relied on earlier.Artwork by Dean QuigleyArchaeologists learn about early Floridians by studying the items found in ancient trash heaps called middens, where people tossed shells, bones, broken pottery and worn out tools.

Shell Mounds Ft George Island 1878, courtesy of FloridaMemory78910661896Many years ago, archeologists also examined Native Floridian burial mounds, which contained human bones and other items. One well-known archaeologist named Frank Hamilton Cushing visited Tarpon Springs in 1896 to pick up a boat for an expedition to Marco Island. Frank Hamilton Cushing, portrait by Thomas Hovenden, courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

While waiting for his boat, he learned about a Native Floridian burial ground that had been named for Anson Safford, a well-known Tarponite. Cushing and his crew uncovered over 600 human skeletons in the Safford and nearby Hope mounds, as well as exotic goods of galena, mica, and greenstone and jewelry made of quartz and copper. This jewelry showed that Native Floridians traded with other Native Americans far to the north.Copper Pendant

Crystal Pendant

Thats awesome, Mr. Peabody, but what does that have to do with trains?Im getting to it, my boy. Be patient.Spring Bayou, photo by R C Turple 2014Although some early Spanish explorers travelled along Florida's Gulf Coast, none of them stayed for long. The Spanish and the Native Floridians clashed, and ultimately, the First People of Florida vanished, replaced temporarily by the Seminole people from the North, who later relocated to the Everglades area.

Image courtesy of Tampa Bay Times

The earliest white settlers arrived in the Tarpon Springs area around the end of the Civil War. Farmers and fishers drifted in, built cabins, andbegan growing oranges and other crops. Over the years, more families arrived, built more cabins, and grew more crops.Courtesy of State Archives of Florida, FloridaMemoryMary Ormond first lived in a cabin near Spring Bayou with her father, then in this cottage after marrying Joshua Boyer. She loved watching the fish jump in the Bayou, especially the giant tarpon, so she decided that their settlement should be called Tarpon Springs.

The Joshua and Mary Boyer cottage, now located at Heritage Village, Largo FloridaAnson Safford, known as the founder of Tarpon Springs, grew up in Illinois, then moved out west to dig for gold in California. He made a name for himself after President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him governor of the Arizona Territory.

Anson P.K. SaffordGovernor of Arizona Territory 1869-1877Ulysses S. GrantPresident of the U.S.1869-1877Later, Safford returned east where he met Hamilton Disston, a man who became wealthy by purchasing 4 million acres of Florida land for just 25 cents an acre.

Hamilton Disston

The Disston real estate deal forced many Florida homesteaders - people who had claimed land by living and farming on it - to buy their land again from Mr. Disston. He profited by charging them much more for the land than hehad paid for it.Early Tarpon Springs Street Scene, courtesy of TSAHSMore people moved to Tarpon Springs, drawn by its natural beauty, natural resources, and near-tropical climate. Yet the only way to reach the area was by boat or mule wagon.

That changed in 1887.

The Mary Disston on Spring Bayou, courtesy of TSAHS1887The year 1887 was very important in the history of Tarpon Springs. It saw many changes in the community.

During the early years, the settlement was difficult to spot from the sea after the sun went down, but in the 1880s, the Federal Government was establishing a chain of lighthouses to help protect the coastline. So, in 1887, the President, Grover Cleveland, ordered theconstruction of the one hundred-foot Anclote Key Lighthouse, at the cost of $35,000.

Images courtesy of Lighthouse FriendsThe light from the giant kerosene lantern could be seen from sixteen miles out to sea. Not only did the lighthouse provide security for the Florida Gulf Coast, but it made it much easier for cargo ships to find the Anclote River and the docks of Tarpon Springs.

Images courtesy of Lighthouse FriendsToday the lighthouse still operates from the Anclote Key Preserve State Park, which can only be reached by private boat or ferry. This photograph was taken in 1954.

Images courtesy of Lighthouse FriendsThe lighthouse was decommissioned in the 1980s, but was restored to operating condition and relit in 2003 through the efforts of the Friends of Anclote Key State Park & Lighthouse organization, and by the Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society.

Images courtesy of Lighthouse Friends

While the President was thinking about protecting the country, the people of Tarpon Springs were making plans for their settlement's future. Twenty-five local business owners worked together to promote Tarpon Springs as acity for relaxation and health as well as for business, so in February of 1887, the voters agreed that Tarpon Springs should officially become a city of Hillsborough County, Florida. It was the first incorporated city on the Pinellas Peninsula.

Hillsborough County? I thought Tarpon Springs was in Pinellas County.Patience, my boy.

While the people of Tarpon Springs worked together to transform their settlement into a city, the people of Hillsborough County were not so quick to work with the people of the Pinellas Peninsula to develop a transportation system for the western hinterland. Their eyes were on Tampa.Port Tampa and Tampa Inn, circa 1900, courtesy of FloridaMemory

Hinterland?The back country, my boy. A sparsely populated semi-wilderness. Also known as The Boonies.Boo!In the summer of 1911, after a poorly built bridge in St. Petersburg collapsed under the weight of a mule wagon, Hillsborough County officials ignored the complaints of the Pinellas Peninsula people. This angered the Pinellas residents so much that after years of talking about it, they finally voted to separate from Hillsborough County. In January, 1912, Pinellas County was created.

No!

So that's why 1887 was so important. They got a lighthouse, AND they became the first incorporated city in what was going to be Pinellas County.That is only part of it, my boy. The best is yet to come.In the years following the Civil War, railroad construction boomed as people rushed to settle the lands in the West. As the tracks crept westward, they also expanded in the South, as people from the North learned more about the sunny Florida coast and the riches it promised.

Plant System train at the Belleview Hotel in Belleair near Clearwater, FloridaCourtesy of FloridaMemory

In 1885, just two years before Tarpon Springs officially became a city, the Orange Beltway Railway began construction of a line between Lake Monroe near Sanford and Lake Apopka. A Russian immigrant named Peter Demens gained control of the Railway from the original owners over a debt, and made plans to connect the railroad from Sanford with the Pinellas Peninsula. It was in 1887 that the railroad reached Tarpon Springs.

Tarpon Springs First Train Depot Built in 1888, courtesy of TSAHS

So...in 1887, Tarpon Springs became a city, got a lighthouse, and also got a railroad. That's a real haul!

Indeed it is, my boy. But that was only the beginning.The arrival of the railroad in Tarpon Springs opened the doors to economic development for the entire Pinellas Peninsula. Within a year, the railroad had reached the southern end of the peninsula. The people there were so grateful they named their settlement St. Petersburg in honor of Peter Demens, the Russian immigrant from St. Petersburg, Russia, who had headed the drive to bring them the railroad.

Peter Demens, courtesy ofWinter Garden Heritage Foundation

Orange Belt Railway Old Engine #7, Demens at far right, courtesy of TSAHSThe railroad connected the Pinellas Peninsula to the outside world in a new and exciting way. It was no longer necessary to travel for days by slow boat or wagon - passengers could now travel in comfort from New York City to Tarpon Springs in just a day and a half.

Railroads of 1890Map courtesy of Humboldt University

The railroad also carried people who were looking for work. African American families arrived and found work with therailroad, in the citrus groves, and in a growing industry that would become very important for Tarpon Springs - sponging.

Tarpon Springs sponge docks, courtesy of TSAHS

While the train was important for tourism in the area, in its early years, the railroad was most important to the growth of the area's agriculture and aquaculture businesses. In the warm waters off the coast of Floridaand in the Bahamas, sponges were collected from small boats by men using very long poles with a hooked end.Sponge hooker using diving bucket and sponge hook, 1920s, courtesy of FloridaMemory

By 1890s, the Tarpon Springs sponge industry, led by a man named John Cheyney, had achieved great success. Sponges were brought to Bailey's Bluff, near the mouth of the Anclote River, where they were placed in stake enclosures called kraals to be washed by the Gulf waters until they were ready to be sold.Photo from Scientific American Supplement, 1904

Sunday Service at the Kraal, courtesy of TSAHSCheyney hired a man named John Cocoris, who helped change the way sponges were collected off the waters of Tarpon Springs.

John Cocoris, courtesy of FloridaMemory

Courtesy of Wikipedia contributor J Williams (JW1805)

Instead of using a long pole with a hook, the men who Cocoris brought from Greece wore a diving suit and helmet. Air was pumped down to them through a hose which made it possible for them to stay underwater and collect many more sponges than could be hooked by the poles, from much deeper water.John M. Gonatos, sponge diver, courtesy of FloridaMemory

Courtesy of Tarpon Springs Area Historical SocietyIn 1905, five hundred Greek boatmen and sponge divers arrived, and within a few years, many Greek-owned businesses were prospering along the streets of Tarpon Springs.

M. Gonatos Building, built 1927. Photo by R C Turple, 2014Greeks, African-Americans, and Bahamians worked shoulder to shoulder in the sponge industry. As the years passed, some Greek-Americans realized that selling sponges, sea shells, coral, and Greek food to winter tourists made good sense, and very good business.

Early Greek Curiosity shop, 1920s, courtesy of Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society

The Greek people have been very important not only to Tarpon Springs' economic development, but to its cultural prosperity as well. The Sponge Docks continue to draw thousands of visitors every year.Photo by R C Turple, 2014

So you see just how important trains were to the growth and development of Tarpon Springs, my boy. Trains allowed the people of Tarpon Springs to transport agricultural products, fish, and sponges to all corners of the world. Trains made it easy for visitors to come to Tarpon Springs. I think I understand now, Mr. Peabody. But..

I still have a lot of questions about Tarpon Springs history. Where can I go to learn more about it?Photo courtesy of TSAHS

Thats an excellent question, my boy. There is one place you can go that will help you learn much more about the First Floridians, the growth of Tarpon Springs, the role the railroad had in its development, and how Tarpon Springs came to be known as the Sponge Capital of the World.

Photo courtesy of TSAHS

Wheres that, Mr. Peabody?Image courtesy of TSAHS

Why, the Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society Historic Train Depot Museum, of course.

Huh?

The Train Depot Museum, my boy. The Pinellas Trail runs beside it. In fact, the Pinellas Trail was built where the railroad tracks used to run.

Gee, Mr. Peabody, that sounds like fun!

Indeed it is, my boy. Educators everywhere can use a telephonic device to communicate with the museum personnel in order to schedule an escorted tour of the facilities.

Huh?

In laymens terms, my boy, teachers can schedule guided tours by calling the museum.

727-943-4624

Gee, thats great, Mr. Peabody!

Teachers can also go to the slides for additional resources designed just for them.

Now, my boy, say adieu to the nice people.I do, Mr. Peabody.Photo by R C Turple, 2014The End

Educator, click here for Resource Slides.The Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society invites all educators to bring your students to the Historic Depot Museum for your next field trip.Call us today for more information.727-943-4624

About the Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society Old Depot MuseumPhone: 727-943-4624Email: tarpon.historical@verizon.netWebsite: http://www.tarponspringsareahistoricalsociety.orgHours: Wednesday, 11-3, Thursday-Saturday, 11-4Admission: Free (donations are appreciated)The Historic Train Depot Museum houses the office and archives of the Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society, which has filled the old station with exhibits telling the story of Tarpon Springs' past. Each year hundreds of tourists (from the United States and abroad), school children and local residents visit the Depot to learn more about our town's heritage. The Society provides opportunities through meetings and special events to discover more of our community's fascinating history.Kilgo, Dolores. Tarpon Springs Images of America. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.

Krueger, Curtis. "Tarpon Group Wants to Expand Museum." St. Petersburg Times, Mar 5 1988.Library of Congress, "Rise of Industrial America, 1876-1900 Railroads in the Late 19th Century", Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/railroad/ (2014).LighthouseFriends.com, "Anclote Key Fl", LighthouseFriends.com (accessed April 28 2014).Luisi, Vincent. Images of Rail: Railroading in Pinellas County. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2010.

MacGregor, Jill Noblit. Once Upon a Bayou: The Life and Legacy of Tarpon Springs Pioneer, G.E. Noblit, Sr. Tarpon Springs FL: Bayou Publications, 2006.Mitchem, Jeffrey. "Some Alternative Interpretations of Safety Harbor BurialMounds." Florida Scientist 51, no. 2 Spring (1988): 100-107.Pinellas County Planning Department. Pinellas County Historical Background, 2008.Rooks, Sandra W, and Carol Mountain. Tarpon Springs Florida Black America Series. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.Schnur, James Anthony. "From Punta Pinal to Peerless Pinellas." In Remarks Delivered at the Inaugural "Pinellas by the Decades" Program. Largo FL, 2011.________. "Independence, New Challenges, and New Opportunities." In Remarks Delivered at the Second "Pinellas by the Decades" Program. Largo FL, 2011.Stoughton, Gertrude K. Tarpon Springs Florida: The Early Years. Second ed. Tampa FL: Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society Inc, 1975.Turner, Gregg. A Short History of Florida Railroads. Kindle ed. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.Multi-MediaVideo, Last Train to Tarpon courtesy of Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society