Tourism in Florida began after the Civil War ended in 1865, when thousands of army veterans returned for the warm climate and healing spring waters, and business people sought profits from the state’s springs, rivers, forests, and wildlife. In 1878, Hullam Jones invented the glass bottom boat at Silver Springs, giving visitors a unique view of the springs, and former President Ulysses S. Grant visited the area in 1880 as ecotourism began. After World War I in 1918, Tin Can Tourists became some of the first vacation travelers to arrive by car, driving Model T automobiles from northern states to Florida. Highway 27, known as the Orange Blossom Trail, brought thousands to Silver Springs in the 1920s and helped launch the Golden Age of the Attractions, which lasted until the 1960s and saw more than 130 attractions established across the state. Bok Tower opened in 1929, followed by Cypress Gardens in 1936 and Marine Studios, later called Marineland, in 1938, and these attractions thrived even during the Great Depression. Most attractions closed during World War II but revived after 1945, with Silver Springs and Bok Tower becoming the two biggest attractions after the war. In 1949, before Civil Rights legislation, Paradise Park opened about a mile downriver from Silver Springs as a segregated park for African Americans, with glass bottom boats, a beach, concession, and picnic area. In the 1950s and 1960s, the interstate highway system and the arrival of major corporations in Florida, especially Disney, dealt a devastating blow to these attractions and ended their Golden Age, though some survived as state parks, including Silver Springs, Homosassa Springs, De Leon Springs, Weeki Wachee Springs, Wakulla Springs, and Rainbow Springs.
