Editing Tarpon Springs, Florida (section)

==History==
The region, with a series of [[bayou]]s feeding into the [[Gulf of Mexico]], was settled by farmers and fishermen<ref name="PhillyTrib20201117">{{cite news|surname=Guzzo|given=Paul|title=This teacher is adding Black cemeteries to history lessons|department=Across America|date=2020-11-16|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Tribune]]|url=https://www.phillytrib.com/news/across_america/this-teacher-is-adding-black-cemeteries-to-history-lessons/article_ef2e5269-2988-5122-8e34-9002115f21bc.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119163518/https://www.phillytrib.com/news/across_america/this-teacher-is-adding-black-cemeteries-to-history-lessons/article_ef2e5269-2988-5122-8e34-9002115f21bc.html|archive-date=2020-11-19|url-status=live}}</ref> around 1876. Some of the newly arrived visitors spotted [[tarpon]] jumping out of the waters and so named the location Tarpon Springs. The name is said to have originated with a remark by an early settler who said, "See the tarpon spring!" (most fish splashing here were [[Mugil|mullet]]). In 1882, [[Hamilton Disston]], who in the previous year had purchased the land, ordered the creation of a town plan.<ref name=HistoricalSociety/> On February 12, 1887, Tarpon Springs became the first incorporated city in what is now Pinellas County.<ref name=HistoricalSociety/> Less than a year later on January 13, 1888, the [[Orange Belt Railway]], the first railroad line to be built in what is now Pinellas County, arrived in the city.<ref>[http://www.taplines.net/March/obstory1.htm Tap Lines – History of the Orange Belt Railway]</ref> During this time the area was developed as a wintering spot for wealthy northerners.

In the 1880s, [[John K. Cheyney]] founded the first local [[sponge]] business. The industry continued to grow in the 1890s. Many people from [[Key West]] and the [[Bahamas]] settled in Tarpon Springs to hook sponges and then process them. A few Greek immigrants also arrived in this city during the 1890s to work in the sponge industry.

In 1905, [[John Cocoris]] introduced the technique of [[sponge diving]] to Tarpon Springs by recruiting divers and crew members from Greece. The first divers came from the [[Saronic Gulf]] islands of [[Aegina]] and [[Hydra (island)|Hydra]], but they were soon outnumbered by those from the [[Dodecanese]] islands of [[Kalymnos]], [[Symi]] and [[Halki (Greece)|Halki]]. The sponge industry soon became one of the leading maritime industries in Florida and the most important business in Tarpon Springs, generating millions of dollars a year. The 1953 film ''[[Beneath the 12-Mile Reef]]'', depicting the sponge industry, takes place and was filmed in Tarpon Springs.<ref>{{cite news|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|title=Beneath the 12 Mile Reef|date=December 17, 1953|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9503E4DA173CE43ABC4F52DFB4678388649EDE&oref=slogin&oref=login  |access-date=2009-04-28}}</ref>

The city's Rose Cemetery, where Black residents are [[Burial|interred]], is believed to contain burials which began in the late 1800s; the earliest legible marked burial is from 1904.<ref name="PhillyTrib20201117"/> The cemetery contains the grave of Richard Quarls, a [[Confederate States Army#Using slaves as soldiers|Confederate veteran]] of the [[American Civil War]] who fought alongside his enslaver before moving to Tarpon Springs and choosing the new name "Christopher Columbus", and veterans of subsequent wars.<ref name="PhillyTrib20201117"/>

In 1947, a [[red tide]] algae bloom wiped out the sponge fields in the [[Gulf of Mexico]], causing many of the sponge boats and divers to switch to [[shrimping]] for their livelihood, while others left the business. Eventually, the sponges recovered, allowing for a smaller but consistent sponge industry today. In the 1980s, the sponge business experienced a boom due to a sponge disease that killed the Mediterranean sponges. There is still a small active sponge industry.