Tarpon Springs, Fla., takes its name from a ‘silver king’ fish

Here’s a bit of local history about Tarpon Springs, a small city on Florida’s Gulf Coast, that was settled around 1876. 

The place was named by Mary Ormond, daughter of Alexander Ormond, who had relocated here, most likely from North Carolina.

 

Local historians said the young Ormond girl was “inspired by abundant tarpon fish found in the local waters”…often seen jumping in Spring Bayou, a warm, spring-fed tributary of the Anclote River.

The tarpon is universally known as the “silver king,” because its large, shimmering, silvery scales reflect sunlight brightly during their aerial, acrobatic leaps. 

With small teeth, they lack the ability to chew. Instead, tarpon use their massive, bony “bucket mouth” to swallow prey whole – mainly mullet, pinfish, sardines and crustaceans.

 

Today, the tarpon is a premier “catch-and-release-only gamefish.” Adult tarpon typically weigh between 60 and 130 pounds and measure roughly 4 to 6 feet long. However, females can grow to more than 300 pounds and 8 feet in length.

During winter months, when the Gulf of Mexico waters cool down, manatees travel inland to the warmer water of the spring, making it a popular spot for manatee viewing. Most of the shoreline is part of Craig Park, a popular recreational site.

 

A bronze statue of “Ama the Mermaid” was added to the park grounds in 2014. Standing 6-foot-4, Ama was cast in Thailand by French sculptor Amaryllis Bataille.

 

Since 1906, Spring Bayou has been the site of the annual Greek Orthodox Epiphany celebration, where young men dive into the water to attempt to retrieve a white cross each year on January 6.

On the calendar, Epiphany marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas. It commemorates the Magi’s visit to baby Jesus (Three Kings Day).

Known as the “Tarpon Springs Epiphany Cross Dive,” the tradition features young men (ages 16-18) who dive into Spring Bayou in search of a small white, wooden cross thrown by the Archbishop. The average depth in this section of the bayou is about 8 feet.

 

The event symbolizes Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River, and the custom was initiated by the Greek sea sponge divers who began arriving in Tarpon Springs in the early 1900s and established St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral. 

(Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek Americans living in any U.S. municipality.)

A white dove is released just before the cross is tossed, representing the Holy Spirit. 

Approximately 75 boys jump from a ring of small boats to find the cross. The teen who retrieves the cross receives a year of blessings and a necklace bearing a gold cross. His name is also engraved on a church monument.

 

In 2026, the winner of the competition was Athos Karistinos, 18, a senior at Palm Harbor University High School who is dual-enrolled at St. Petersburg College. 

Athos Karistinos’ father, Anesti, also retrieved the cross in 1991. His grandfather had worked at the town “Sponge Docks” as a deep sea sponge diver.

Teenage girls are barred from diving for the cross. Dr. Joanna Theophilopoulos Bennett, who specializes in pediatric medicine, is on a crusade to change the exclusionary rules. A parishioner at St. Nicholas, she maintains that “the male-only rule is both arbitrary and theologically unjustifiable.”

 

Ironically, Joanna Theophilopoulos was selected in 2014 as the female teenage member of the choir to serve as the “dove bearer” for the event. That was a great honor and high responsibility, she said, “but the fact I would never have the chance to dive for the cross was always in the back of my head growing up.”