Three mineral springs along the Little Wekiva River west of this area supplied its main source of water. Indians and white settlers alike sought the cool 72 degree spring water as a healing and refreshing destination in a natural setting banked by palmettos. Palm Spring, whose clear flow lay a short distance from the river’s tea-colored water, was considered the most attractive of the three and gave its name to the early settlement that developed here from 1870 to 1900. In the early 1920s, Lester Beeman of the chewing gum family purchased Palm Spring and improved it with a cement wall that enlarged the swimming area. Hoosier originally stood beside the river’s dark water, but after Frank Haithcox bought it in 1926, renamed it Sanlando, cemented and expanded the adjoining area, raised the water level with a dam, diverted the stained Wekiva, and added a bath house around a separate cement pool filled daily with fresh spring water. During the 1930s, Sanlando Springs was further enlarged with a tall slide, a large sand beach along one side, picnic pavilions, an outdoor terrazzo dance floor, and landscaping that made it a year-round recreational destination for the area. Shepherds, farther downstream on the river’s west side, was less accessible and was never developed, remaining instead a favored wilderness camping area for the Boy Scouts. In 1970 the three springs were purchased, Shepherds was renamed Starbuck, and all three became part of The Springs subdivision, ending their public use.