Spring Bayou

Spring Bayou. . , Early pioneer Mary Ormond Boyer named Tarpon Springs for the leaping silver tarpon in the bayou near her cabin. Under the surface of the bayou, a spring "boiled” for several days intermittently throughout the year. The phenomena occurred when Lake Tarpon (then Lake Butler), a mile and a half distant, reached a certain level, causing an outflow through an underground connection to Spring Bayou. The outflow also allowed salt water to travel back to Lake Tarpon killing freshwater fish. In 1969 an earthen berm was constructed around the Lake Tarpon spring sealing its connection to Spring Bayou. An early city dock was built for shallow-draft steamboats, the only way winter visitors could reach Tarpon Springs in the 1880s. By the turn of the century, Spring Bayou was the focal point of the "Golden Crescent” of Victorian homes and boathouses surrounding its banks. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church held its first Epiphany celebration in 1906, commemorating the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. The St. Nicholas annual Epiphany ceremony draws tens of thousands of visitors to Tarpon Springs each January 6. Not only is Spring Bayou known for Epiphany, but as the winter home to numerous manatees seeking the temperate waters of the bayou.