As we celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, the America250 initiative invites us to trace the roots of Florida’s most beloved attractions back to the workers who shaped the surrounding landscape. At Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, a proud member of the Adventures Unbound family, we are recognizing the Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees who worked in Hernando County a decade before Newton Perry opened his famous mermaid theater, laying the conservation groundwork that made the region a destination.

Camp A-3 at Chinsegut Hill

Before Weeki Wachee Springs became a tourist attraction in 1947, the springs were a local swimming hole littered with abandoned appliances and rusted cars. But the New Deal was already transforming Hernando County. In July 1936, CCC Camp A-3, Company 5468 was established at Chinsegut Hill in Brooksville, just 15 miles from Weeki Wachee. The men initially slept in tents before modular prefab barracks arrived.

The camp was unusual. It sat on the residential estate of Raymond and Margaret Robins, who had donated the property to the federal government but still lived on the premises. Raymond Robins became active in camp life, teaching a journalism class and helping produce a camp newspaper called “The Chinsegut Star.” CCC workers built stone structures, including one near Lake Lindsey that still stands after nearly 90 years. The camp operated until October 1937, with enrollees earning $30 per month and sending $25 home to their families.

During the same era, the federal government was creating the Withlacoochee State Forest across Hernando, Citrus, and surrounding counties. Between 1936 and 1939, the U.S. Land Resettlement Administration acquired 113,000 acres of depleted private land, transforming it into the conservation forest that now surrounds the Weeki Wachee area.

The Stage Was Set

When Newton Perry opened Weeki Wachee Springs on October 13, 1947, he was building on a decade of New Deal investment in Hernando County. The CCC had already demonstrated that this corner of Florida was worth conserving. The forests the corps replanted, the roads they built, the very idea that Hernando County’s natural assets deserved protection: all of it set the stage for the springs attraction that followed.

To learn more about how we are celebrating the diverse stories behind America’s national heritage, visit America250 at Adventures Unbound.