Green Springs Park is a 36-acre public area with a remarkable past, a famous sulphur spring, and recreational features including a playground and trails. This place has long been popular. At least six thousand years ago, native people lived here, drawn by local food sources and springs. Later came Seminole Wars soldiers from a nearby stockade; a settler, innkeeper, and politician building a community in the 1840s; pioneering anthropologists; tourists after the Civil War; and twentieth-century visitors relaxing at a private swimming hole for ten cents. Although swimming is not allowed in Green Springs Park, active recreation was never the only attraction. Nineteenth-century visitors noted the land's mysterious power, and some judged it the height of St. Johns River scenery. In 1845, an experienced traveler called it one of the most picturesque and romantic spots he had ever seen.