Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park

The legend is older than the park, and the park is older than you think. Small attractions drew visitors to these grounds beginning in the 1860s, trading on a well claimed to be the freshwater spring supposedly sought by Ponce de León — though no evidence supports that claim. What archaeology has confirmed is harder to dismiss: excavations by Dr. Kathleen Deagan in the 1990s uncovered the remains of the first Spanish settlement and its fortifications, the place where St. Augustine actually began in 1565.