The Seminole Indians named the spring “Weeki Wachee”, which means “little spring” or “winding river”. Deep in the spring, the surge of the current is so strong that it can knock a scuba diver’s mask off.
In 1946, Newton Perry, a former U.S. Navy man who trained SEALS to swim underwater in World War II, scouted out Weeki Wachee as a good site for a new business. The spring was full of old rusted refrigerators and abandoned cars.
The junk was cleared out and Newt experimented with underwater breathing hoses and invented a method of breathing underwater from a free-flowing air hose supplying oxygen from an air compressor, rather than from a tank strapped onto the back.
With the air hose, humans could give the appearance of thriving twenty feet underwater with no breathing apparatus.
Weeki Wachee’s heyday began in 1959, when the spring was purchased by the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC) and was heavily promoted. ABC built the current theater, which seats 500 and is embedded in the side of the spring 16 feet below the surface.
ABC also developed themes for the underwater shows, with elaborate props, lifts, music, and story lines such as Underwater Circus, the Mermaids and the Pirates, and Underwater Follies.
The mermaids performed Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and Peter Pan.
In the 1960s, girls came from as far away as Tokyo to try out for the privilege of becoming a mermaid. Weeki Wachee Springs employed 35 mermaids, who took turns swimming in the shows and captivating the crowds by playing football and having picnics underwater.
And, yes, there is a summer program called “Mermaid Camp” where children can attend to fulfill their dream of becoming a mermaid or merman.