Fountains of youth: medical tourism in Green Cove Springs, Florida, 1845–1900

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study focuses on how the treatment of prevalent nineteenth-century illnesses like tuberculosis relied upon a combination of climatology, hydrotherapy, and outdoor exercise, all of which were either naturally abundant in Green Cove Springs, Florida or for which the town came to provide outlets. Green Cove Springs’s ability to fill these vital medical needs contributed to the town’s development between 1845 and 1900. Health-seeking tourists stimulated the economy of Green Cove Springs as well as the population. Climatology dictated that permanent relocation to a healthy clime was necessary to evade death, so tourists transformed into residents. Traditional historiography links the settlement of and tourism to Florida towns with the desire for opportunity, health, or leisure, but sources tend to focus on only one of these motivations and centre on either settlement or tourism, rarely both. This paper presents a local history of Green Cove Springs, Florida, arguing that residents and tourists worked together to secure their own dreams of opportunity and leisure through quests for health. Medical-based tourism spawned opportunities for leisure and allowed many a chance to earn a living through hotel management, agriculture, and medicine.