Weeki Wachee: City of Live Mermaids

Long before Disney World became the staple of Florida’s tourism industry, there was Weeki Wachee, the City of Live Mermaids. Since opening its doors in 1947, Weeki Wachee has attracted thousands of roadside visitors—and aspiring mermaids—from all over the world.

Weeki Wachee was named by the Seminole Indians and means “little spring” or “winding river.” Set on 538 acres and home to the deepest naturally formed spring in North America, this state park is best known for its live mermaid shows, where half-fish, half-human performers swim and dance in an underwater theater built 20 feet below the spring’s surface.

Former U.S. Navy man Newton Perry, who trained frogmen to swim underwater in World War II, scouted Weeki Wachee as a business venture in 1946. At the time, the spring was full of junk, which Perry had cleared while inventing an alternative to breathing underwater that didn’t involve strapping a tank to your back.

Perry’s underwater breathing apparatus was a free-flowing hose that supplies air from a compressor, forcing air into the swimmer’s lungs with a toggle they control. This gives the swimmer the appearance of breathing underwater unassisted.

Six feet below the water’s surface, Perry built an 18-seat theater. He then scouted out pretty young women and taught them to swim with air hoses and smile simultaneously, eat bananas underwater, and perform aquatic ballets.

In 1959, ABC TV bought the park and built the 400-seat theater we know today.

It takes rigorous training to become a full-fledged mermaid. The swimmers have to keep their lungs half-full to remain buoyant, all while smiling and mouthing the lyrics to the songs they’re performing to. When hovering in place, they’re fighting steady 5 mph currents; each mermaid must stay in a perfect line at the exact same depth to do so. On top of this, each 30-minute show involves multiple underwater costume changes.

After the show, the beautiful mermaids emerge from the water for meet-and-greet photo ops. Candidates from all over the world, as far away as Tokyo, come to this Gulf-coast destination in hopes of fulfilling their dreams of becoming a mermaid.

Just as in the original shows, today’s mermaids use free-flowing air tubes for oxygen and, with an array of glittering props, present underwater renditions of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid as well as the complete history of Weeki Wachee Springs.

The geological backdrop is no less stunning than the synchronized song and dance; the theater sits above subterranean aquifers that pump over 170 million gallons of freshwater per day. The natural pumping system keeps the water at a cool 74 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.

If that’s not enough, you can marvel at Weeki Wachee’s old Cypress trees (by way of the River Boat Cruise or your own kayak), or head next door to Buccaneer Bay, Florida’s only spring-fed water park. And don’t expect anything less charming in the surrounding town of Weeki Wachee; with a population of 16, it’s known as one of the nation’s smallest cities and, of course, is proudly run by a mermaid-turned-mayor.