Manatee Mineral Springs Park
Manatee Mineral Springs Park | |
---|---|
Indian Springs Park | |
Location | Bradenton, Florida |
Coordinates | 27°29′51.41″N 82°32′57.04″W / 27.4976139°N 82.5491778°W[1] |
Area | 1.96 acres (0.0079 km2) |
Created | January 1842 |
Operated by | City of Bradenton |
Open | Year round |
Manatee Mineral Springs Park (formerly Indian Springs Park) is a neighborhood park located in Bradenton, Florida. The park is named after a natural spring at the location. In 2006, the park's natural spring was designated a "Florida Natural Spring" by the Florida Geological Survey of Natural Springs.[1][2]
The park is one of the region's oldest parks and is now a gateway to the city's Riverwalk eastern expansion. The park is a public–private partnership that is open to public use.
History[edit]
A Florida State Historical Marker at the park commemorates the early Anglo-American settlement of the village of Manatee that grew up around the spring. Three Spanish fisherman guided Josiah Gates, Manatee's first white settler, to this spot in late 1841.[citation needed]
In 1842 Henry and Ellen Clark acquired the spring property and built the town's first trading post.[citation needed] Over many centuries, people who traveled or hunted or settled along the nearby section of the Manatee River took water from the spring.[3]
The park was designated in 2018 as a site on the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.[4] This recognizes that the spring was used by individuals who had escaped slavery and lived near the spring between the end of the 1700s and when Florida became a territory in 1821.[5] Angola was destroyed by a massive slave raid in early 1821; some escaped to the Florida interior or the Bahamas.[6]
The park was re-landscaped and dedicated in 2022. A new feature of the park is a hand pump that pulls water from the spring onto a relief map of the Manatee River. The park has picnic tables and a small gazebo. A boardwalk extends into the Manatee River.
The park adjoins the Reflections of Manatee Historic Complex at the Curry Houses Historic District.[7] In January 2020, the City of Bradenton funded excavations that recovered evidence of Angola and the early settlement of Manatee.[citation needed] Reflections of Manatee led that project and exhibits the artifacts that were recovered.[8]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Schmidt, Walter; DEP (October 12, 2004). "Springs of Florida" (PDF). Florida Geological Survey Bulletin. 66: 365, 566. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
- ^ "Manatee Mineral Springs Park". City of Bradenton. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
- ^ "REFLECTIONS OF MANATEE, INC". REFLECTIONS OF MANATEE, INC. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
- ^ "Visit Underground Railroad Locations - Underground Railroad (U.S. National Park Service)". nps.gov. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
- ^ Baram 2012
- ^ "Looking for Angola". Retrieved May 7, 2019.
- ^ "CURRY HOUSES HISTORIC DISTRICT". REFLECTIONS OF MANATEE, INC. February 24, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
- ^ Callihan, Ryan (January 21, 2020). "Bradenton will expand the Riverwalk. First, they're uncovering history's 'hidden treasures'". Bradenton Herald. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
- Baram, Uzi. "Cosmopolitan Meanings of Old Spanish Fields: Historical Archaeology of a Maroon Community in Southwest Florida" Historical Archaeology 46(1):108-122. 2012
- Baram, Uzi "Many Histories by the Manatee Mineral Spring" Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter March 2014 http://files.ctctcdn.com/d1e1db8f001/28309dee-6a81-46f1-967f-d511065af014.pdf