Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Fountain of Youth" in English language version.
{{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help){{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Presumably, Ponce de Leon's first landing was north of St. Augustine and south of Jacksonville. The exact spot of the landing will probably never be known. The claim that the actual site of the landing has been definitely established at the Fountain of Youth Park seems unsupported by satisfactory evidence. The Fountain of Youth seems to be a well, not a spring, and to be without authenticated historical importance. One gets the impression that an effort is made to give the tourists their money's worth and to popularize history with such revisions as will best serve the gate receipts, and that in so doing historical accuracy has suffered.
ln 1909 when a tree near the well was uprooted by a storm. Mrs. McConnell gave out the fantastic story that she had discovered in the hole left by the upturned roots what proved to be a cross formed of chunks of coquina, disposed 15 in the upright and 13 in the cross-beam, having been placed thus by Ponce de Leon to commemorate the year 1513 of his discovery...She also identified the site of a mission chapel built by Ponce de Leon and some of the coquina building blocks still remaining to mark the site. It is pertinent to recall that wherever Ponce made his first landing he remained at the place only five days. This story told by Mrs. McConnell of the Ponce de Leon coquina cross and its discovery by her was the origin of the myth that Ponce de Leon landed at Hospital Creek. Her ingenious invention found immediate acceptance and endorsement in a quarter one might least suspect.