Long before the big theme parks took over Florida, the main draw
out on Highway 19 was a roadside spring where the mermaids were real people.
Weeki Wachee put on its very first underwater show on October 13, 1947, and folks pulled off the road just to watch swimmers glide through water so clear it looked like glass.
The secret was pure Old Florida ingenuity. A former Navy frogman trainer named Newton Perry taught the performers to breathe from long air hoses tucked out of sight, so they could smile, twirl, and even sip a soda underwater with no tank anywhere in view. The first little theater sat just a few feet below the surface, carved right into the limestone.
Nearly eighty years later the spring is a state park and the mermaids are still swimming. If you ever caught a show here as a kid, do you remember who you were sitting next to that day?
Sources: #RealFlorida #FloridaHistory
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