Unlike other popular tourist attractions, the freshwater well bore only a small, white, wooden plaque that read "Fountain of Youth."
Here it was, the Fountain of Youth that the explorer Juan Ponce de Leon had set out to discover and ultimately did find on the island of South Bimini in the Bahamas in the early 1500s.
Inside the well, a worn rope was tied around a pulley tethered to a tin pail. Legend held that the well water was to be drunk. I dribbled a small amount on my tongue, and then splashed the water all over myself for good measure.
Would I be forever young? Bimini locals I later met who had performed the same ritual some 20 years earlier remained ambivalent.
Nonetheless, I was enamored of the myth, much like other travelers who have visited tiny, legend-rich Bimini, whose name means "mother of many waters" in the Taino Indian language.
Bimini actually is two distinct islands (North Bimini, where most of the residents and tourists congregate, and South Bimini, far less populated) with a total land mass of less than 10 square miles, separated by a narrow ocean passage and numerous cays.
A five-minute ferry ride connects the two islands, which together serve as the gateway to the Bahamas. Lying just 50 miles off Florida's coast, Bimini is the closest Bahamian island to the U.S. and lays claim to the title of game fishing capital of the world.
Most of Bimini's 1,800 residents live on North Bimini in Bailey Town, while nearby Alice Town, also on North Bimini, is the tourist and fishing center, with shops, restaurants and bars.
Bimini's lack of infrastructure and development contributes to its pristine, natural landscape. Life here is laid-back, authentic and charming.
With only a handful of hotels and restaurants, tourism development, such as it is, is minimal.
De Leon aside, it was Ernest Hemingway who put Bimini on the modern tourism map with his first visit in 1935. The devoted sports fisherman and celebrated author stalked and hooked some of the world's biggest marlin in Bimini's waters.
It was on Bimini that Hemingway penned "Islands in the Stream" and sections of "To Have and Have Not."
The Bimini Museum has an exhibit dedicated to Hemingway's life on the island, but it is the locals who relate the personal details about where he wrote, boxed and drank rum.
Ashley Saunders, a Bimini historian, recounted the occasion when Saunders' relatives boxed with Hemingway in a makeshift ring on the beach.
"He was a big deal. Left big footprints in the sand," Saunders said.
While those footprints are but a memory, so, too, is the Compleat Angler, a hotel and bar in Alice Town where Hemingway spent most of his time when he wasn't aboard his fishing boat Pilar or writing his novels.
The small hotel, which once served as the social center of Bimini, burned to the ground in a raging fire on Jan. 13, 2006.
It is best remembered for the photographs of Hemingway that once lined its walls; those photos were lost in the fire, and only the charred structure remains to commemorate the writer.
Hemingway was not the only celebrated visitor to leave big footprints. Ansel Saunders, brother of Ashley and a bonefishing guide, recalled taking Martin Luther King Jr. out on his boat, where the Nobel Prize winner wrote part of his own eulogy.
Just as moving as the stories told by locals are the island's spiritual sites. Lying about a mile from shore and 15 feet below the water's surface off North Bimini is Bimini Road, a collection of large granite stones not native to Bimini, assembled in what legend says are the steps that led to the Lost Continent of Atlantis.
Discovered in 1969, Bimini Road continues to captivate skeptics and believers alike due to its pronounced, manmade shapes. At any rate, it makes for a great snorkeling and dive site.
Located within the saltwater mangrove forest that covers four miles of North Bimini is the Healing Hole, a natural, sulfur-rich pool discovered 20 years ago at the end of a network of winding tunnels.
During outgoing tides, the channels pump cool, mineral-laden freshwater into the pool. Many of the visitors to the Healing Hole believe that the waters have curative qualities.
Bimini's hotels range from small to smaller, for now. The seven-room Big John's Hotel on North Bimini completed renovations this year. Its Conch Shell Bar has become a favorite of locals and visitors after the demise of the Compleat Angler.
The hotel is near Heritage Village, a residential and commercial real estate project set to open next fall. Components will include Brown's Beach Club, with an outdoor bar with daybeds and lounge areas, 17 marina slips, and 17 hotel and condominium units.
The tourist landscape will change when Conrad Hotels & Resorts, a luxury brand of the Hilton family of hotels, debuts its 250-room, 160-residence Conrad Bimini Resort & Casino on North Bimini in 2010.
The resort will be part of a multiphase, 700-acre seaside village named Bimini Bay Resort & Marina, which will include additional residences and villas, an 18-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, a marina and several restaurants and retail shops.
Continental Connection, Yellow Air Taxi, Air Time and Bimini Island Air serve Bimini from Miami and Fort Lauderdale on scheduled and charter flights.
Hotels can arrange fishing tours through private guides; most of the bonefishing excursions start at $350 for a half day or $600 for a full day for two people.
Visit www.bahamas.com.