The region, with a series of
bayous feeding into the
Gulf of Mexico, was settled by farmers and fishermen around 1876. Some of the newly arrived visitors spotted
tarpon jumping out of the waters, so named the location Tarpon Springs. The name is said to have originated with a remark by an early settler who said, "See the tarpon spring!" (most fish splashing here were
mullet). In 1882,
Hamilton Disston, who in the previous year had purchased the land, ordered the creation of a town plan. During this time the area was developed as a wintering spot for wealthy northerners. In the 1880s,
John K. Cheyney founded the first local
sponge business. The industry continued to grow in the 1890s. Many people from
Key West and the
Bahamas settled in Tarpon Springs to hook sponges and then process them. A few Greek immigrants also arrived in this city during the 1890s to work in the sponge industry. In 1905,
John Cocoris introduced the technique of
sponge diving to Tarpon Springs by recruiting divers and crew members from Greece. The first divers came from the
Saronic Gulf islands of
Aegina and
Hydra, but they were soon outnumbered by those from the
Dodecanese islands of
Kalymnos,
Symi, and
Halki. The sponge industry soon became one of the leading maritime industries in Florida and the most important business in Tarpon Springs, generating millions of dollars a year. The 1953 film
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, depicting the sponge industry, takes place and was filmed in Tarpon Springs. The city's Rose Cemetery, where Black residents are
interred, is believed to contain burials that began in the late 1800s; the earliest legible marked burial is from 1904. ==Geography==