Summer sizzles. Getting wet and cooling down sounds like a great plan.
Your options: Float down the Rainbow River in an inner tube with your buns cooling off at a constant 72 degrees, dip into a lake, find a pool, join the kids at a water park, splash in the salt water shallows on both coasts or – hang onto your straw hats– get wet by doing something totally different and quite wonderful.
Head for the soothing waters at Warm Mineral Springs in North Port. Let’s get languid – be completely relaxed in water containing 51 minerals.
Warm Mineral Springs, Nort Port, Florida
Don’t worry, you don’t have to count the minerals or name them, scientists have already done it for you. And don’t worry about the water temperature. No wet suits required. The spring is a delightful 87 degrees year round.
Warm Mineral Springs is way off the beaten path
Where is this place?
Well, I knew exactly where it was located. Warm Mineral Springs for years was a small newspaper clipping in a folder on my desk labeled “Places in Florida I’ve Always Wanted to go to but Haven’t Been Yet”.
Finally, the clipping came out of the folder in June and off I went to stay at Warm Mineral Springs Motel, about seven-tenths of a mile from Warm Mineral Springs, making it most convenient. To make it even easier, have the hotel call Louie’s Bicycle and Darts in North Port and rent a bike for your stay.
You are instantly forgiven for not knowing the name North Port. This community was founded in 1959. That makes it so new it is barely yesterday in the history books compared to St. Augustine’s august age – in 2015 the Ancient City will celebrate 450 years and the Castillo de San Marcos will doubtless celebrate by firing the big cannons.
Meanwhile, on the Gulf coast, the young and thriving city of North Port, located midway between Tampa and Naples in southern part of Sarasota County, stands out as the county’s largest city with a 2010 census population of 57,357 and an average age of 39.
While the city of North Port is new to Florida, Warm Mineral Springs has been around for quite a while, centuries actually. All this time it has been a tourist attraction, even if an undiscovered one off the beaten path.
Visitors these days are a mixture of regulars, many of them of Eastern European descent who live nearby and come often, and Florida residents surprised to find this gem in their “back yard” plus an increasing number of eco tourists who have seen the brochures proclaiming Warm Mineral Springs as “America’s Natural Wellness Destination” and come to test the waters.
The first surprise, a nice one, is how natural the springs are. We are, sadly, used to visual hype from theme parks. Water slides, screaming rides, hawkers selling goods. Forget them all, thank goodness.
Native Americans came to Warm Mineral Springs
Here there are the springs, looking close to the way Native Americans would have seen the place – unadorned, inviting with a slight smell to the air letting you know this is mineral water. The sound system plays gentle music that will sound very familiar if you have ever taken a yoga class. Deep breathe now. Ah.
A large circular spring, a gigantic bowl, is surrounded by a gentle curving hillside festooned with neat rows of pale lavender chairs. That’s it. Remember, it is all about the water.
Claim a chair, strip down to a bathing suit, leave your shoes by the water’s edge and enter at any of the ramps. A rope goes all the way around the shallow edge but you are welcome to float out into the center area. The water is really buoyant. When I floated out to the middle I thought perhaps the water would shoot me up into the air, like a cork coming out of a champagne bottle.
Shoes at the water’s edge, Warm Mineral Springs
The protocol is pretty simple. People bob along clockwise around the spring. Some float in the middle. Nobody swims. Oh yes, you could go fast and pass people, but why? Just go with the flow.
Once around and I was ready for a break and some drinking water. Twice around and I felt languid, in the moment, toes barely touching the bottom as I bobbed along, my hands going out and in, back and forth, like butterfly wings beating slowly. Without consciously realizing it, I was keeping time with the gentle music.
Time. On the hour a soft chime counts out the time. But does it matter? One more time around and I didn’t want to get out of the water at all, never mind that it was lunchtime.
A water yoga class was announced and I bobbed over that way, just to the other side of the ropes. Breathe. Ah. Gentle postures. Looking around I see this is quite the place for hats. Regulars wear large brim straw hats and many have faces white with sunscreen. But they must all know each other well behind the sunscreen because I hear the phrase “See you tomorrow” a lot as they got out of the spring.
Overhead, swallows darted in the pale blue sky. In the water I saw one turtle and small minnows. A little blue heron worked the shallows, hunting for minnows.
Every day nine million gallons of water bubble up into this spring from the Floridan Aquifer. The water goes into a small creek and eventually washes to the Gulf of Mexico.
A small outcropping of old buildings next to the springs has a spa, gift shop, and Café Evergreen where the food comes from the community organic garden on the grounds of the springs. I had the special of the day – a turkey burger with sliced avocado and sat on the porch, having a lovely time watching people happily bobbing around the springs. A heads up for vegetarians – Monday at Café Evergreen is “Meatless Monday”, so join them then.
Lunch at Cafe Evergreen, Warm Mineral Springs
One avid tourist who never quite made to the springs, but not for lack of trying, was Juan Ponce de Leon (1460-1521) – you remember him – the Spaniard on a quest to find riches, especially the Fountain of Youth. He was the first European that we know of to set foot on Florida. Twice he tried to fight his way to Warm Mineral Springs. The Calusa Indians beat him and his soldiers back to the coast. They were not about to share their Fountain of Youth.
His effort to get here was enough for the National Register of Historic Places to designate Warm Mineral Springs as Ponce de Leon’s Original Fountain of Youth.
Will it work? Will you be young forever if you come here? Can’t answer that one but I do know hope springs eternal. Come test the waters. You will most certainly leave feeling languid.
In 2010 Sarasota County and the City of North Port bought Warm Mineral Springs. Future plans include a boutique hotel and a natural wellness center and walking trails, all on the 81 acres of property. The future development would be located well away from the springs, an area which will stay natural and accessible, according to Gene Vaccaro, General Manager of Warm Mineral Springs.
Gene isn’t shy about promoting the springs saying:
“This is the most significant property in the state of Florida. You can’t do this anywhere else in the world, can’t move it, can’t duplicate it.”
But you can come and enjoy it 363 days a year.
Note: Many thanks to the Sarasota Tourist Development Council and Roger Herber, manager of Warm Mineral Springs Motel for providing accommodations and Gene Vaccaro of Warm Mineral Springs for providing admission.
Vitals to know:
Warm Mineral Springs, 12200 San Servando Ave., North Port, FL. 34287 | The Springs Phone: 941-426-1692 Fax: 941-429-9183
General Admission
Day Pass – Adult: $20.00 / Student: $15.00 / Children 12 & Under: $10.00
General 10 Day Pass: $170.00 / Paid in Advance Annual Pass: $1,300.00 / Payment Plan Annual Pass: $1,500.00
(Payment Plan Annual Pass Terms: $500 upon issue of membership, $500 due within 30 days, balance due within 60 days)
Sarasota County Resident’s Admission
Day Pass – Adult: $15.00 / Student: $11.25 / Children 12 & Under: $7.50
General 10 Day Pass: $127.50
Prices subject to change without notice
The Springs hours are from 9am – 5pm / Seven days a week!
The Springs is open 363 days. Closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
©2012 Lucy Beebe Tobias
UPDATE: In September 2014 the City of North Port bought out Sarasota County’s share of Warm Mineral Springs and now owns it entirely. Check pricing and hours here The Cafe Evergreen is no longer at Warm Mineral Springs but relocated to Nokomis where it serves lunch and dinner. Amenities such as water yoga classes are expected to come back to Warm Mineral Springs soon.
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