Fun on the Mermaid Tale Trail along Florida’s Adventure Coast
Weeki Wachee has long been home to the Weeki Wachee mermaids and in 2022, the park celebrated its 75th anniversary. To aid in the celebration, the Mermaid Tale Trail was scheduled for a grand kickoff, but Mother Nature had a different plan. Hurricane Ian devastated the Port Charlotte area, and the festivities had to be put on hold… but…
The Mermaid Tale Trail is a long dreamt of public art project sponsored by Florida’s Adventure Coast Visitors Bureau, Brooksville Main Street, and the Hernando County Fine Arts Council. The idea was to create life-sized mermaid statues to be painted by commissioned artists throughout Hernando County along a trail of sorts for locals and visitors to enjoy.
Tammy Heon, Manager of Tourism for the County, found the right company to create the mermaid statues, and Kristy, a real Weeki Wachee mermaid, would have her face cast to add authentic beauty to each piece. Read the whole story here.
The Mermaids Come to Life from Artist Visions
Meanwhile, a call was made for artists to submit their visions for painting a mermaid for the trail, and each sponsor chose their artist based on the submitted concept drawings.
After the statues were created, they were brought to Brooksville for distribution, and the process of bringing each mermaid to life began.
NatureCoaster sponsored a mermaid called Nico and the Velvet Underwater, which was painted by Jesse Kasabian. She is on display at Anderson Snow Park where thousands of children visit and stop to get their photo with Nico. She is a beautiful addition to the area, as are her many sisters throughout Hernando County, from Bayport to Richloam.
Watch Jesse’s story of creating Nico:
Each mermaid has a theme and a story. The creativity that goes into each one can be seen on the Florida Mermaid Trail website at https://floridamermaidtrail.com/tale-trail/
There is a fun, hand-drawn map of the entire trail available for download or you can pick one up at the Brooksville Bandshell offices. The map is adorable, with each mermaid’s story on the back, but it wasn’t drawn to scale and would be hard to follow while driving, so I went for a drive to meet all 27 local mermaids using the Mermaid Tale Trail digital passport.
Using the Mermaid Tale Trail Passport to Travel the Public Art Trail
It was a simple 1-2-3 process to order my Mermaid Tale Trail Passport from the website.
After visiting the Mermaid Tale Trail website and providing my info, I received a text message to add the passport to my phone. This allowed me to see each mermaid’s location and gave me directions to visit the one(s) I selected. As I visit each mermaid, I can learn more about her story and check in with my phone’s location services to qualify for some pretty cool mermaid swag!
I was planning to follow the itinerary to discover all twenty-seven statues, starting at the Brooksville Bandshell offices in Brooksville’s charming historic district on East Ft. Dade Avenue, but I was starting quite a bit north, northeast in Nobleton.
I opened the Florida’s Adventure Coast passport and clicked on Mermaid Tale Trail. I clicked the map icon and each mermaid on the Tale Trail and its location was displayed. Two mermaids were north of town and I headed out to meet them.
The Mermaid Tail Trail passport provides an easy-to-follow Google Maps interface that gives the location of all of the mermaids or the ones near you, as well as directions. It made it a lot easier!
Google Maps directed me to “Clarise”, the mermaid protector of manatees! Although she is the ultimate “seacow” girl, she resides on top of a hill off Snow Road at Sparacia Family Winery. After being guided to the winery, I parked and immediately saw her – a colorful 6’8” statue in the center of the venue’s gathering place.
As part of my adventure, I checked in to show that I met Clarise on the app and confirmed my location. It worked like a charm but took several clicks. I met the gentlemen who maintain the winery property and enjoyed learning about their upcoming live music shows. The view is spectacular!
Then off to meet Amaxura, Seminole mermaid. Amaxura was the original name for Hernando County, according to the passport. Each mermaid on the trail features a story, adding to the fun of visiting them. This mermaid is positioned near the foot of Chinsegut Hill Historic Site. Open on weekends for tours of the manor house and self-guided tours of the property, it is always a wonderful experience to visit “the Hill.”
I passed one of my favorite “off the beaten path” locations driving between these two mermaids: the Lake Lindsey Mall & Deli. Known for their delicious Cubans and their “sit on the front porch and stay a while” ambiance, “the mall” is a must-stop for a bit of cultural education and a cool drink.
The passport said I had earned 50 points for each “check in” at a mermaid. What did this mean?
Earning Points for Mermaid Tale Trail Prizes
I opened the passport’s Rewards tab. It said I was well on my way to earning a tale trail sticker page, an artist’s postcard, a souvenir magnet for my refrigerator, or the big prize of a coloring and activity book! Reward amounts ranged from 250 to 400 points and included shipping!
Downtown Brooksville houses several mermaids in close proximity and some cool places to discover.
In front of the public library is “Undine,” a water nymph inspired by a fairytale novella published in 1811. Two blocks to the east is “Queen Bee,” inspired by the beekeeping of the artist’s grandfather and her love for nature (and honey). I checked in at both.
Then I visited “Sirena de la Fruta”, a celebration of living life in abundance. She resides in a small garden with a waterfall and reflecting bench to the right of the building’s back entrance. I check in for Sirena in the garden, while taking a few minutes to relax.
Next, a visit to “Patience” who resides on the south side of the historic Hernando County Courthouse. After viewing Patience, I checked in with my passport and considered my next move. It was getting pretty hot.
I chose the mermaid located by the 1895 Train Depot and Countryman One Room Schoolhouse, two historic locations that are manned by volunteers and highlight the history of the area. Unfortunately, Russell Street was under construction, so I could just look at “Lily” from my vehicle while I read her story.
With eight mermaid check-ins in my app, I now had 400 points.
I had visited “Nico and the Velvet Underwater” when I was last in Anderson Snow Park and checked in there. Nico is my favorite mermaid because “Nico knows that to be truly great at her craft, she must practice diligently and consistently, while never giving up and staying positive.” Yes, the mermaid statue inspires me.
Now I understood Tammy Heon’s comment, “We invested in the Passport to help users find the mermaids along the trail based on the location where the visitor is. We wanted to add some fun to the trail, so as each mermaid is visited, the user can record the visit in their passport to qualify for some Tale Trail Swag.”
Tammy continued with a definite note of pride, “Our team tourism really chipped in on creating the swag, with our own Shannon Werner creating the artwork for nearly everything, except the artist’s postcard by Lee Middleton. It has truly been a team project.”
Driving to the closest mermaid to me was relaxing, with two-lane blacktop roads leading me by farms and estates, alongside tiny homes from the 1960s, and half of a giant brontosaurus known as the Lake Lindsey dinosaur. Read that story here.
Continuing along the trail with the use of the passport to guide me from one location to the other and to tell me each siren’s story was a lot of fun. Seeing children enjoy the statues and their magic added to the equation.
A Call for Artists for the next 20 Mermaids ends July 26
Nature Coast artists are invited to apply to paint one of the 20 mermaids that will be unveiled on November 2, 2024. Once the unveiling day is complete, the Mermaid statues will be moved to their permanent locations and publicly displayed at local businesses and various public locations throughout Hernando County and added to the digital passport.
The artist submission deadline is July 26, 2024. Then the submissions go to a committee for final selections. Meanwhile, local patrons and businesses can apply to sponsor their mermaid by emailing Tammy Heon at theon@floridasadventurecoast.com for specifics.
