De León Springs State Park

This guide to De León Springs State Park near Orlando follows an old sugar mill that burned twice, torched by Seminoles in 1835 and by Union troops in 1864, and was rebuilt each time. You'll hear how boosters later attached Ponce de León's name to the spring and sold tickets to a fabricated Fountain of Youth, and how a family eventually turned the rebuilt mill into a restaurant where you cook your own pancakes at the table. Best heard seated at your own griddle, over the ground where cane was once crushed for sugar.