One of Florida’s earliest manmade tourists attractions, and the oldest marine attraction in the country, is Marineland Florida, located in northern Flagler County. It opened in 1938 for the purpose of collecting scientific data on sea mammals and other creatures, producing movies about them and letting the public view all that was going on.
Even before it opened, Marineland was making news. Here’s an Orlando Sentinel story from December 1937 with the headline, “Another Wonder For Florida: Marineland Takes Form South of St. Augustine”…
“There is indeed a surprise awaiting those who travel on the Ocean Boulevard, between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine, to find the new community of Marineland being erected about 20 miles south of St. Augustine in the extreme north end of Flagler County. Much steel is going up and a great activity is going on in preparing the grounds with the proper naturalistic setting.
A diver walks among numerous fish at Marine Studios (later Marineland) in 1946. A survivor from the pre-Disney era of Florida roadside attractions began as an underwater movie studio. (Courtesy Florida State Archives)
“It seems that long ago someone had the dream of building an aquarium large enough to house the big sea creatures, seldom seen, in order to have controlled conditions whereby unusual moving pictures could be taken. It was their dream to arrange the conditions in such way that motion pictures could be taken of the mother porpoise suckling her young. of big sharks feeding, of sail fish and the dolphin, and many, many others of the some 85,000 underwater species, all in natural habitat unaware of being observed.”
Marineland of Florida near St. Augustine displays photos of its history as the oldest marine attraction in the country. In this 1960s photo a crowd enjoys a performance by Flippy the trained dolphin. (Courtesy Marineland)
The Sentinel also noted at the time that Marineland would have “the largest tanks in the world for holding huge specimen fish and aquatic mammals which have never been in captivity.”
“It is to promote scientific observation and motion picture studies never before made possible,” the story said. “The public also will be permitted the unusual privilege of having an under-sea experience in this miniature ocean without going beneath the waves in a diving suit.”
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