So Supernatural - MYSTICAL: The Fountain of Youth

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

Explorer Juan Ponce de León made the quest for the Fountain of Youth what we know it as today, but it's possible that he was searching for something much larger than simply water that turns back time…  

Getting older can be unpleasant. I mean, really, who wouldn't rather be young without the aches and pains of a body that's slowly wearing down? Long before superfoods and miracle skin creams, explorers literally risked their lives to find the holy grail of anti-aging cures, a rejuvenating spring hidden somewhere in the world known to us as the Fountain of Youth. Some legends say it's a relatively small spring. Others say it's a huge waterfall. Different theories have placed it near Africa, Japan, China, Ireland, and Florida.

Depending on the story, its waters either had the power to make you younger or just stop aging in its tracks. But there's one theme that runs through every story. Finding the world's best-kept secret isn't for the faint of heart. This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I'm talking about the Fountain of Youth. For centuries, explorers from all over the world hunted for this hidden, magical spring. A lot of them died or disappeared in the process. But believe it or not, according to some ancient accounts, a few searchers might have actually found it.

We'll have all that and more coming up. Stay with us. History is absolutely littered with stories from all over the globe about bodies of water with magical properties. There's an ancient Greek myth about a place called Hyperborea, a utopian paradise free from war, sickness, famine, and conflict. Its residents could live for more than a thousand years. Whenever they wanted to move on from their current life, they'd jump into a magical lake and emerge as swans. It makes for a lovely story, but it's clearly not true. There are no historical records of a place called Hyperborea, and we all know that Greek mythology is more fiction than fact. But references to the Fountain of Youth aren't only found in myths. In the 400s BCE, Herodotus, often credited as the first Greek historian, wrote an allegedly

true story about a group of spies who infiltrated a kingdom in Ethiopia, known as the Macrobians. When the spies show up, they notice that all the Macrobians look young and fit and healthy, even the ones who are more than a hundred years old. For whatever reason, the Macrobian king eventually decides to show the spies the secret to their youthful vigor. He leads them to this majestic fountain where all his people bathe. It smells like violets and everyone emerges with their skin looking shiny and supple. Herodotus never calls it the fountain of youth, but that seems to be what it is. Now obviously Herodotus was hearing this story secondhand and other ancient historians even criticized him for not fact-checking the folk legends that sometimes appear in his accounts. But a lot of

what the guy wrote is confirmed to be true, so we can't dismiss the story entirely. And really, the account doesn't seem that far-fetched. I mean, floral, fragrant water that keeps skin looking healthy? That sounds like a product you can buy at your local pharmacy. Living past 100? Plenty of people live past 100 these days, and without the help of magic. If all these stories were isolated to ancient Greece, they'd be easier to write off as legend. But the thing is, references to magical, rejuvenating waters appear all over world history. A couple hundred years after Herodotus, a Chinese historian wrote about a trio of islands

called the Islands of the Blessed. They were incredibly difficult to find and super dangerous to reach. But if you made it to shore, the islands were home to both sacred herbs and fountains of youth. There was this alchemist named Su Fu who sat on the emperor's royal court. And one day, the Chinese emperor sent him out to find these islands. And here's what happens. With a small crew and only a half-baked idea of where to go, Su Fu sets sail. As promised, the journey's no joke. The waters are turbulent and no one's even positive what they're looking for.

But eventually, Su Fu finds the Islands of the Blessed. He gets close enough to see all the herbs growing on the land. This is definitely the place. But he doesn't go ashore yet. He realizes he needs more supplies and more men. So he heads back to the emperor and tells him what he found. The emperor gives him everything he needs and Sufu ships off again. And he's never seen or heard from again. Maybe he found the islands and never returned. Maybe he died trying. We'll never know. But some modern historians think he eventually landed in Japan, which is interesting because the Japanese have their own stories that are pretty similar to Sufu's. One tale was of a Japanese explorer who sets out and apparently

finds a beautiful island with a spring on it, and its waters leave him feeling rejuvenated, maybe even a little younger. Meanwhile, halfway across the world, an eerily similar story appears in Celtic folklore. It's about an Irish prince named Bran, who one day hears this hauntingly beautiful music that puts him into a trance. In this dreamlike state, he meets a woman who tells him about this island where no one becomes sick or dies. When he wakes up, Bran is ready to find this place and become immortal. He gathers a group of men, sets sail to find the island,

and super long story short, he eventually does. It's this lush paradise where time stands still. The weather's beautiful, there's plenty to eat, and so long as they're on the island, nobody seems to age or get injured. Not even a paper cut or a knee scrape. They are portraits of youth. But there's another Celtic story about a guy known as Saint Brendan, who was definitely real. He also had a vision telling him to go find a magical island and, allegedly, he finds it. He arrives with a crew of monks, only to be met by, no lie,

another crew of monks who already live on the island. The head monk says that none of them ever age or get sick. Of course, this story can't be completely verified, but as far as this island Brendan went to, it might have been real. Sometime around the 13th century, an island called St. Brendan's Island starts appearing on all maps all over Europe. It supposedly is in the Atlantic Ocean,

somewhere to the northwest of Africa. The problem is, back in the day, mapmakers would plop new landforms on their maps without really checking to see if they exist. So even though St. Brendan's Island is marked on a lot of maps, nobody at the time is even sure if it's actually there. But in the 15th century, one of the most famous explorers in record history apparently goes out looking for St. Brendan's Island. You know him, although you may not love him, Christopher Columbus. That's right. Before his famous accidental voyage to the New World in 1492. If he did find the island, I have to assume he didn't find the Fountain of Youth there.

Otherwise, he might still be around today. But that doesn't mean he stopped looking. There were already rumors that the mythical fountain wasn't on St. Brendan's Island after all. There's this letter circulating around Europe that's supposedly written by a guy named Prester John. He claims to be the king of a far-off land with a river of gold and a fountain of youth. Over the centuries, that letter is republished countless times in a ton of different languages. And one version reads, quote, the miraculous spring is located on an island in the extreme meridian of the world. Extreme meridian. It's a phrase that gets people

thinking. Maybe the fountain isn't anywhere near Europe. Maybe they have to travel even further west to find it. And this might shed a whole new light on Columbus's famous trip across the Atlantic. Coming up, tickets are sold to drink from the Fountain of Youth. Now back to the story. Juan Ponce de Leon is barely 20 years old when he joins Columbus's second trip to the Americas. The conquistadors land in Hispaniola, somewhere near modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with big plans to get rich. Now, no matter which way you slice it, Ponce de Leon isn't a saint. He's ambitious in a time when there's almost no difference between ambition and ruthlessness. He's a colonizer, a murderer, and he's eventually complicit in the massacre of

thousands of indigenous people. But his insatiable ego is what makes him the protagonist of our story. I mean, it takes a certain type of person to think they can beat death. When he first arrives in Hispaniola, Ponce de Leon starts out building farms and infrastructure. He wants to create a permanent Spanish settlement, which he thinks is a surefire way to win favor with the Spanish royalty. Eventually, he ends up becoming the governor of Puerto Rico. He's almost immediately ousted from power by another conquistador named Diego Columbus, who, for the record, is the son of Christopher Columbus. Ponce de Leon is furious. He runs back to King Ferdinand, who is like, sorry, that's kind of how it goes. But he offers up a consolation prize. Ponce de Lyon can go explore other lands for the crown,

if he wants to. It's not exactly what he was looking for, but the king's blessing is essentially a blank check. He can go looking for whatever he wants to, and he knows exactly where he wants to go. He's heard rumors of this island called Bimini, which is home to something far more valuable than power or gold, the Fountain of Youth. In March 1513, Ponce de Leon sets sail with three ships in search of the island, and things don't go well. He lands near the coast of Florida and realizes almost immediately that he's in the wrong place. He keeps exploring, but at his next stop, he's literally chased back to his ships by indigenous people on shore.

Before long, Ponce de Leon is due back in Spain where King Ferdinand is waiting to see what he found. Of course, when he shows up empty-handed, he assures the king that he just needs a little more time. He also notes the indigenous people he encountered. Clearly, to chase away an entire expedition required them to be quite fit and healthy. He doesn't name drop the Fountain of Youth per se, but there's definitely a suggestion of hope on his lips. It's enough that Ferdinand walks away feeling optimistic. Enough that he actually names Ponce de Leon the governor of the elusive island of Bimini, a place the explorer had never been to in his life. Ponce de Leon returns to Florida in 1521, but as far as I can tell, this trip's even more disastrous than the first. It's disorganized,

there's no clear direction, and one day a fight breaks out between his crew and the native Colusa people, and Ponce de Leon is fatally wounded by an arrow. He dies shortly after at age 47. Now, the records from this second voyage are pretty much non-existent, so there's not much to go on. It would make sense to say that Ponce de Leon didn't find the secret to immortality since he died, but I guess eternal youth doesn't necessarily protect you from Eros, so who knows? That said, as the world keeps spinning and Europe gets swept up in the Renaissance, something curious starts happening in Florida that suggests that maybe, just maybe, Ponce de Leon actually did find something.

Over the next couple of centuries, Spain begins laying claim to all the lands that he once explored. And they're not the only ones putting bids in. Britain and France are also vying for ownership of Florida, which, in all reality, already belongs to the Timuqua and other indigenous peoples. Note, these types of land disputes aren't entirely unusual for the time, but the amount of attention paid to this specific slice of land, the area right around modern-day St. Augustine, raises some questions. Like, what could possibly be hidden there

that has these countries so hot and bothered? Initially, Spain ends up winning the land, but it changes hands many times after that. By the 20th century, the area belongs to one wealthy businessman, and in 1927, he opens what he calls the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. It's billed as a must-see attraction with tons of gardens and historic archaeological sites. But of course, the main attraction is its namesake, the Fountain of Youth. Advertisements tease that visitors can come and sip from the water that Ponce de Leon probably did hundreds of years earlier.

The park is still open today, and there's still an area cordoned off with water running from a fountain. Anyone can go see it for a $15 entry fee, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Forget that Ponce de Leon died without leaving behind any record of finding any fountain, let alone a magical one. The real problem is, if the Fountain of Youth was sitting in a park in Florida, do you really think I'd have to tell you about it? It would be common knowledge. People would be lining up from all over the world, knocking down the doors. And if the water really

was magical, the property owners would be charging exorbitant prices for people to take a sip. Not the $15 the park currently charges. I mean, there are anti-wrinkle creams that cost more than that. And to be clear, the park doesn't actually promise eternal youth. It's pretty obviously just a tourist trap. You could give them the benefit of the doubt, and they say they're preserving the fountain that Ponce de Leon once mistook for the Fountain of Youth, but you'd still be incorrect. See, the whole story I just told you, along with everything you ever learned about Ponce de Leon's epic quest for the Fountain of Youth, is not true. It's all propaganda.

Coming up, I'll look at how history rewrote Ponce de Leon's legacy. Now back to the story. The famous explorer Ponce de Leon likely never searched for the Fountain of Youth, at all. And depending on what you were taught in school, that may be a hard pill to swallow. But stay with me, it'll all make sense after we travel back in time to the early 1520s. Right after Ponce de Leon died, people immediately began writing about his travels. One of the first is an Italian scholar named Peter. He's a member of the Spanish royal court, and he sets the scene for Ponce de Leon's eventual legacy.

Peter interviews explorers returning from the New World, and apparently, some mention a spring that can heal people's ailments. It's all pretty vague, and no one ever explicitly ties the fountain to Ponce de Leon. But the stories themselves are passed on to him by explorers who were posted in the Caribbean. So Peter's basically like, I trust these men. I wasn't there to see it for myself, but I'll take their word for it. Whether he intended to or not, Peter's book spreads the idea that there's a legitimate magical

fountain somewhere in the new world. Of course, nobody seems to notice that all of Peter's references to the Fountain of Youth don't really add up. Like how in one part of the book, he hints that the fountain's in Florida, and in another, he says it's most likely in the Bay of Honduras. But the inconsistencies don't really raise red flags for the scholars that come after him. They just see the word fountain and run with it. And this sets the stage for what historian Douglas Pett calls the romantic, fictional, and completely unfounded reports by Spanish explorers and historians that follow. The next historian to tackle this subject is a Spanish court chronicler named Gonzalo, and he doesn't exactly like Ponce de Leon. Si Gonzalo is a close friend with Diego Columbus,

the man who ousted Ponce de Leon as governor of Puerto Rico back in the day. So as he sits down to write his chronicle, Gonzalo puts a spin on Spain's first expeditions to the New World and makes his friend Diego look like a knight in shining armor. Meanwhile, he describes Ponce de Leon as naive and egotistical. To support these characterizations, he invents the narrative that Ponce de Leon spent years of his life searching for a mythical object. He's the first person to ever make the claim that Ponce de Leon was looking for the Fountain of Youth. There are some half-truths mixed into the account, but for the most part, Gonzalo's claims just seem like personal attacks.

Like, he adds this detail that Ponce de Leon was only looking for the fountain to restore his manhood, insinuating that he was impotent. It's a cheap shot, and it also doesn't have any basis in reality, since Ponce de Leon fathered several children. It doesn't matter, though. Once the misinformation starts, there's a snowball effect. Legitimate historians perpetuate the story, conflating Ponce de Leon's actual search for gold and fame with this false narrative that he was looking for eternal life.

His biographies become littered with inaccuracies. One book from 1893 called The Beginner's History of America says, quote, Ponce de Leon, a Spanish soldier who was getting gray and wrinkled, set out to find this magic fountain, for he thought that there was more fun in being a boy than in growing old. Even though Ponce de Leon was most likely only in his 30s when he set out for the Americas, the story eventually makes it into school textbooks and academic journals. Historians didn't even start correcting the misinformation about Ponce de Leon's age until about 1974. Microsoft's digital encyclopedia still claimed that he was 14 years older than he actually was, and that his search for the Fountain of Youth took him to an island that he never actually stepped foot on. The few surviving letters that Ponce de Leon sent back to Europe debunk almost everything in this myth.

With what we know about his ego, it's pretty safe to say that if he intended to locate the Fountain of Youth, he would have bragged about it to his superiors or updated them on his progress. But Ponce de Leon never mentions a fountain in any of his letters, and neither do any of his associates, not even once. As for how St. Augustine, Florida got pulled into the story, that's anyone's guess. Most contemporary historians are pretty sure that Ponce de Leon landed more than 100 miles away from St. Augustine, somewhere closer to Melbourne, Florida. Which means he was never anywhere near the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. So where does that leave us?

Well, Juan Ponce de Leon was really no different than any other conquistador. He wanted gold, fame, and fortune. But he most certainly never went on a hunt for the fountain of youth. But that doesn't mean the fountain doesn't exist. All those ancient stories probably have to come from somewhere, right? It could be out there somewhere waiting to be found. Or maybe someone already has found it and it's hidden on a private estate somewhere under lock and key. Even with all their fictional elements, myths tend to have some truth to them, even if it's just a greater truth about human nature. We really love being young, or rather, we're afraid of our own expiration dates.

Even if you're someone who embraces aging, you have to admit most people would probably drink from the fountain of youth given the chance. Let's be honest, if he found it, Ponce de Leon definitely would have. And turns out, we may not need to drink from a magic fountain to fulfill our desire to stay young. We already use machines to keep vital organs alive, with controversial practices like biohacking, stem cells, and genetic manipulation. Science is marching toward the impossible goal of immortality. So it's not so far-fetched to suggest that one day technology might be able to keep us alive forever, or at least as long as we want it.

Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all AudioChuck originals.