Silver Springs: 1900

What a keen observer you are Dave!
It even took me minutes after your hint to find it.

A great look at the early history of the area and the many Riverboats that plied the river to Silver Springs.

Incredible. Looks like a movie set, not like reality.

There's so many fun details in this photo that it took the brick tree comment to get me down into the lower left corner. Someone has thoughtfully provided an iron rail boot scraper on the second step up from the muddy shore, for the convenience of the expensively dressed tourists (and the people who had to clean the floors and rugs in all the buildings around the landing). And what about that rail siding that ends right at the door of the little shed with the Porch Roof of Damocles? It looks like a set-up for a silent movie gag.

It has a paddle at the back.

The okeehumkee does not appear to have side or stern wheels. Is it prop driven?

OK, explain again how these people could survive there 10 months out of the year wearing the clothes they have on in this picture when there was no air conditioning to go home to. I'll grant the clothing was of natural materials, which breathe better, but after that ... Could the photo have been taken in the depths of "winter"?

[From the time Henry Flagler built his railroad until the 1920s, the majority of white people in Florida, aside from maybe Jacksonville and Tallahassee, were vacationers from up north. The state was a winter resort, with "the season" lasting from around December to April. Just about anyone visiting Silver Springs would have been a wintertime tourist. - Dave]

Looks like the establishing shot in an old movie. Not sure why I like this picture so much.

Another view of the Okeehumkee earning its keep.

Being a Tampa native I made many visits to Silver Springs and Six-Gun Territory. In its last few years Six-Gun admittedly did start going downhill. However in its prime I remember it as a wonderful family entertainment destination. The "Old West" buildings were well made and historically accurate, and the staged gunfights and saloon shows were done professionally. No,it doesn't compare to Disney (the Holy Grail of tacky tourist rip-off), but at least a family could spend the day there without spending obscene amounts of money.

GlenJay, you are right, the Ocala area is not the same now. Neither is Florida. Too bad.

There seems to be a strong "Key Largo" feel to these Florida pictures. Expect Bogart to show up at any time!

The guy standing next to the lady with the umbrella looks like he might be carrying an early Brownie.

I believe that I have seen this exact location modeled in miniature in the Narrow Gauge Gazette a few years back.

Has anyone any idea of what the railway track (bottom left) was for?

[It was for trains. This is a rail depot. Note the boxcar in back. - Dave]

What a great picture. It really makes me wish I could have experienced it firsthand. Lots of interesting details in this one. Keep 'em coming!

We can see your tax dollars at work—the real tree is being replaced with a more fiscally viable brick tree.

I grew up near Silver Springs. (And I now live near Silver Spring!) In the 50s and 60s Silver Springs still had many traces of the rural resort that you see in this photo. The main attraction was the glass bottom boats, which were there in 1900 and are still there today. The awful, ironically named Wild Waters Park had not yet appeared, but there was a tacky tourist rip-off called Six-Gun Territory. I like to think of Silver Springs as the Old Florida that I just barely caught before it disappeared. I'd be afraid to go back there now after 40 more years of Florida "development."

This is simply a sublime, magic picture! Thanks.