BY ROBIN MIMNA
For decades, the statues of Juan Ponce de León and the “Bathing Beauty” greeted visitors at the DeLeon Springs tourist attraction. The pair brought a playful, midcentury charm to the vibrant Florida scenery, making it an Instagram-worthy spot long before the platform existed. Today, these iconic figures are missing, and the trail vanished over 50 years ago.
In the late 1800s, what was known as the Spring Garden plantation was renamed Ponce de Leon Springs. The name change capitalized on Florida’s booming tourism industry, although the closest Juan Ponce de León ever came to the park was 80 miles away in Cape Canaveral. By the 1950s, the park was a major attraction.
BATHING BEAUTY AT DELEON SPRINGS — Dottie Berman poses for a billboard in 1953 at DeLeon Springs. The park was entering its glamour period, and the model dep al bathing beauty.
The most famous show, and one still visible in the small museum area near the bathrooms at the still-popular tourist spot, was Sally the Water Skiing Elephant.
At its peak, the park was represented by two statues: one of Juan Ponce de León and the other of a “Bathing Beauty.” Every one of the millions of people who visited was greeted by the enigmatic family who stood guard over one of Florida’s last pieces of untouched paradise.
By the time the park closed as a tourist attraction in the mid-1960s and was sold to the state in 1982, the iconic statues were gone.
Dorothy “Dottie” Cobb, the park’s PR director at its 1953 opening, revealed she was the bathing beauty statue’s model at an unofficial dedication in 2009.
Instead, a replica of a 1950s billboard was installed to remind locals of the era of Ponce de León and the Bathing Beauty. Cobb passed away in 2010.
Brian Polk, former manager of DeLeon Springs State Park, author and local historian, has some theories about what might have happened to the statues.
PONCE AND BATHING-BEAUTY STATUES — Artist Sandra Koop used photos of these statues, and photos of a 1953 billboard, to re-create Ponce and his bathing beauty, Dottie Berman Cobb, in the mural at the entrance to DeLeon Springs State Park.
Polk theorizes that as business fell, the park’s owners may have sold the statues to private collectors for quick cash. Possibly, campers who frequented the property in the 1970s could have sneaked away with them in the night for unknown purposes
“The statues’ removal wouldn’t have been easy,” said Polk. “From looking at the photos, they appeared to have been mounted on a single, likely concrete-anchored base, making them difficult to steal without the right access or inside help.”
Polk suspects it was an “inside job” — perhaps they were sold or stolen during subsequent private ownerships or when the State of Florida acquired 55 acres in 1982, establishing it as a state park. In partnership with Volusia County, additional land was later acquired to protect the spring, expanding the park to 625 acres.
Despite speculation, no trace of the statues has ever surfaced, leaving them all but forgotten if it wasn’t for the vintage-style billboard that recalls a time when Florida was still a magical place to most of the world. Their absence adds an extra layer of mystery to the history of the famous park, along with the hope that they might one day be found.
Perhaps someone, somewhere, knows where they are. Whether concealed in a private collection or lost in some forgotten garage corner, the statues’ fate remains unknown. Unless someone steps forward, the mystery may never be solved.
