Tarzan Was Filmed Here: The Untold Story of Silver Springs and Hollywood
This is a history & culture news article published on 2026-02-18 covering local Marion County, Florida news. Long before it was a state park, Silver Springs was one of the most photographed places on earth — and a favorite filming location for Tarzan, Sea Hunt, and dozens of Hollywood productions.
Tucked just east of Ocala in the heart of Marion County, Silver Springs State Park is best known today for glass-bottom boat tours and crystal-clear springs. But before it became a state park, it was a Hollywood secret — one of the most important and unusual film locations in American cinema history. For decades, its incomparably transparent waters enabled underwater photography that simply couldn't be achieved anywhere else on earth.
Why Hollywood Came to Ocala
The Silver Springs group of springs discharges approximately 550 million gallons of crystal-clear water daily from the Floridan Aquifer. The result is water of near-perfect transparency — sunlight penetrates to the sandy bottom even at significant depth. In the early days of cinema, when underwater photography was still experimental, Silver Springs offered something no studio could replicate: a natural aquatic environment where cameras could capture underwater scenes with adequate natural light and extraordinary visibility.
Silver Springs holds the distinction of being Florida's first major underwater film location — predating by decades the film industry infrastructure now centered in Tampa and Orlando.
Tarzan Swings Into Silver Springs
Multiple Tarzan films were shot at Silver Springs during the 1930s through the 1950s — some of the most beloved entries in the entire franchise. The actor most associated with the role and with Silver Springs is Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic swimming champion turned definitive Hollywood Tarzan. Weissmuller's extraordinary aquatic ability combined with Silver Springs' crystalline waters produced Tarzan films that looked unlike anything else in Hollywood at the time.
The location served as a convincing stand-in for equatorial Africa throughout this era — its lush subtropical vegetation and exotic waterways providing the visual language of jungle adventure that audiences expected from the franchise.
The Monkeys: Tarzan's Living Legacy
The most surprising legacy of the Tarzan productions at Silver Springs isn't on film — it's in the trees. During the filming era, rhesus macaques were brought to Silver Springs as part of the production's exotic atmosphere. Some escaped their enclosures and established a breeding population in the surrounding forest.
Today, a thriving feral colony of rhesus monkeys — direct descendants of those escaped Tarzan-era animals — lives in the woodlands around Silver Springs State Park. Spotting them during a glass-bottom boat tour or kayak trip on the Silver River is one of the park's most memorable experiences. Visitors are always advised not to approach or feed the monkeys.
Silver Springs' Full Hollywood Resume
- Sea Hunt (1958–1961): The popular Lloyd Bridges TV series used Silver Springs extensively for its underwater sequences, introducing millions of Americans to scuba diving.
- Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954): The iconic Universal horror film used Silver Springs for underwater sequences featuring the Gill-man creature — creating some of the most memorable images in classic horror cinema.
- Airport '77 (1977): Used Silver Springs for underwater sequences depicting a submerged aircraft.
- The Yearling (1946): The beloved MGM adaptation of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Pulitzer Prize novel used locations throughout North Central Florida.
Visit Silver Springs Today
Silver Springs State Park (5656 E Silver Springs Blvd, Silver Springs, FL 34488) became a Florida State Park in 2013 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors today can take glass-bottom boat tours over the same springs that captivated Hollywood, kayak the Silver River while watching for feral monkeys in the canopy above, swim and snorkel in crystal waters, and explore 15 miles of trails through diverse ecosystems.
When you visit, you're standing where Tarzan swam, where Lloyd Bridges dove in Sea Hunt, where the Gill-man lurked. Florida's natural wonder and American cultural history are inextricably woven together here — and it's right in Ocala's backyard.
Explore more of Ocala's natural wonders in our things to do guide.