Radioactive Fountain of Youth?

Punta Gordians proudly declared the existence of a ‘rejuvenative’ fountain as far back as 1894. Back in 1926, the people of Charlotte County’s, coastal town of Punta Gorda, FL raised money to construct a green-tiled fountain for the aquifer that still stands today. Many people swore by the water’s mystical properties; at the peak of its popularity in the mid-20th century the spigot’s handle was used so often it reportedly needed to be replaced every six months. A spigot juts out near the top to release water from the artesian well below. Each of the four sides features a picture of a ship, a tribute to Ponce de Leon.

Old newspaper articles report accounts from locals who claim that the fountain has kept them young and energized. It was popular enough that some people had to wait in lines just to get a drink. "I drank out of that well every day," said Gussie Baker, a resident of Punta Gorda for all of her 78 years.

Punta Gorda's water clocked in at 9.2 picoCuries of radium-226 isotope per liter when it was tested in 1983. This exceeded the recommended radium limit, set at 5 picoCuries per liter. Punta Gorda talked about shutting off the Fountain, but youth-crazed locals have successfully blocked that effort ever since. "They've tried several times over the years to close it down, to seal it up, to move it or hook it to the city water, and the public has always defeated that," said Wilson Harper, a 71-year-old former water utilities supervisor better known as "Water Bill." Visitors "usually come with lots of plastic bottles, or big plastic jugs that hold maybe five or ten gallons," he said.

Radium shows up in 3 to 4 percent of water around the country, according to a recent study by the United States Geological Survey. Many areas have no radium in their local water. Radium mostly turned up in places that had certain rock formations with particular water chemistry that created the perfect radium sink. Florida made up the third most likely area in which to find radium-laced water.