I had some history with Magnesia Springs long before I heard the story about the monster. It was summer of 1959, I was six and had just finished first grade. Mom and her best friend Betty conspired together to have us kids learn to swim. Mom and Dad had been friends with Betty and Billy Yawn since high school, then both couples got married, and in the following years, each having three kids about the same age. Two boys and a girl on our side and two girls and a boy on theirs. We grew up together, getting together for holidays, family events and other activities. One summer it was roller skating lessons, this summer it was swimming lessons.

Betty, Billy and their kids at our house
Christmas 1959

In 1959 Gainesville didn’t have any public swimming pools, but there was Glen Springs which offered swimming lessons for children.  Mom heard about it, probably from the paper which Dad read every morning, and signed us up for it. Located in the city limits of Gainesville, Glenn Springs is a 5th magnitude spring. Now if you don’t know what a magnitude is, consider one of the most well-known springs in Florida, Silver Springs, with its glass bottom boats, monkeys, and where one of my most favorite TV shows growing up was filmed, Sea Hunt. Silver Springs had a flow rate of over 500 million gallons per minute making it a 1st magnitude spring. Glen Springs on the other hand, at 5th magnitude, was hardly a trickle, I’ve seen more water flow in the street during an afternoon thunderstorm than flows from Glen Springs.

Glen Springs Pools

Even so, it produced enough water to fill a swimming pool. Unlike other more natural springs in Florida with white sandy bottoms and crystal-clear blue water bubbling from the depths, Glen Springs was a large concrete swimming pool.

Glen Spring source

There are two things that all springs in Florida have in common, crystal-clear water and a water temperature of a constant 72 degrees. Now Florida summers are hot, hot and humid, and in 1959 we didn’t have air conditioning at home. My brother, sister and I loved the every-other week trips to the public library in the summer, as much for the wonderfully cool air conditioning, as the books, maybe more so. The thought of swimming in a cool pool of spring water on a hot summer day sounded refreshing. Swimming lessons sounded like fun.

Next