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STRANGE PLACES ON FLORIDA’S GULF COAST

The Gulf Coast is the register's most varied region and its easiest to do without a plan. Eleven entries, most of them within an hour or so of each other, strung along a coast that has been in the tourist business since the railroads arrived.

The result is layers. A Greek sponge-diving fleet that has worked out of Tarpon Springs since 1905 and still lands sponges. A spring with a theatre sunk into the limestone below the waterline, where swimmers have performed on concealed air hoses since 1947. A serious museum of Salvador Dalí, a serious museum of the circus, and a house in Safety Harbor painted every colour that exists.

Two entries share the springs theme with the geological list, and several are indoor, which makes this the region to aim for in August or in weather. Five of the eleven are free.

11
ENTRIES IN THE REGION
5
FREE TO VISIT
8/10
MEDIAN STRANGENESS
5
COUNTIES
Weeki Wachee Springs
Weeki Wachee Springs
A submerged theatre from 1947 where performers breathe from hidden air hoses and hold a smile.
UNDERWATER · ANIMALS
Weeki Wachee · Hernando
$13 state park
9WEIRD
Everglades Wonder Gardens
Everglades Wonder Gardens
A 1936 roadside zoo of alligators and flamingos, kept almost exactly as it was by the photographer who saved it.
ANIMALS
Bonita Springs · Lee
$15
8WEIRD
Monkey Island
Monkey Island
A tiny island in the Homosassa River, held continuously by spider monkeys since the 1960s.
ANIMALS
Homosassa · Citrus
Free from the boardwalk
8WEIRD
Pinecraft
Pinecraft
A winter neighbourhood of Amish and Mennonite visitors in the middle of Sarasota, moving by adult tricycle and shuffleboard.
TOWN-SCALE ODDITY
Sarasota · Sarasota
Free
8WEIRD
The Ringling Circus Museum
The Ringling Circus Museum
A Venetian Gothic palace on Sarasota Bay, an art museum, and a 3,800-square-foot miniature circus built over fifty years by one man.
BUILT BY ONE PERSON
Sarasota · Sarasota
$25 estate ticket
8WEIRD
Warm Mineral Springs
Warm Mineral Springs
An 87-degree sinkhole spring pushing out nine million gallons a day, with 10,000-year-old human remains at the bottom.
GEOLOGICAL ANOMALY · UNDERWATER
North Port · Sarasota
$20
8WEIRD
Sunken Gardens
Sunken Gardens
A century-old tropical garden growing fifteen feet below street level in a drained lake bed.
BUILT BY ONE PERSON
St. Petersburg · Pinellas
$15
7WEIRD
Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks
Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks
A Greek sponge-diving port on the Gulf, in continuous operation since 1905, still selling what the divers bring up.
ANIMALS
Tarpon Springs · Pinellas
Free
7WEIRD
The Dalí Museum
The Dalí Museum
The largest Dalí collection outside Spain, in a hurricane-proof concrete box with a 75-foot glass bubble growing out of it.
BUILT BY ONE PERSON
St. Petersburg · Pinellas
$29
7WEIRD
The Shell Factory
The Shell Factory
Acres of shells, coral, fudge, taxidermy, and an arcade, operating since 1938.
ROADSIDE GIANT
North Fort Myers · Lee
Free entry
7WEIRD
Whimzeyland
A residential lot surfaced in several thousand painted bowling balls, and still growing.
BUILT BY ONE PERSON
Safety Harbor · Pinellas
Free from the sidewalk
7WEIRD

BROWSE THE REST OF THE REGISTER

BY TYPE
Built by one person 12 Geological oddities 7 Cryptids 1 Haunted 6 Underwater 7 Roadside giants 9 Animals 12 Ruins and abandoned places 10 Strange towns 3 Machines and vessels 1
BY REGION
The Panhandle 5 North Florida 4 Central Florida 15 The Gulf Coast 11 The Atlantic Coast 4 South Florida 11 The Keys 10
BY COST
Free to visit 24