Green Cove Springs is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2000 census. As of 2010, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 6,908. The city is named after the portion of the St. Johns River upon which it is built. The river bends here, and the area is sheltered by trees that are perennially green. History The area was first inhabited over 7,000 years ago by Native Americans by the warm mineral spring. The hydrological spring of the same name, locally known as the "Original Fountain of Youth", attracted guests in the 19th century; more than a dozen hotels were near the spring. Today, the sulfur-scented spring water feeds an adjacent public swimming pool before flowing the short distance to the St. Johns River. The Green Cove Springs area was first developed by George J. F. Clarke in 1816 when he was provided land, under a Spanish land grant, to build a sawmill. Green Cove Springs was established in 1854 as White Sulfur Springs. Renamed in 1866, it became the Clay County seat in 1871. Agriculture and tourism were two of the primary economic ventures until the end of the 19th century, when Henry Flagler's railroad began taking tourists further south into Florida. In 1895, the Great Freeze destroyed the area's citrus crops, and tourism all but ended. The 1920s had renewed development, with automobile traffic bringing in tourists again. The Great Depression of the 1930s was the end of growth again for the city. The first women's club in the state of Florida was established in Green Cove Springs in 1883. The Village Improvement Association led local efforts to beautify the town, and established its first public library. The period immediately before and during World War II again brought new growth to Green Cove Springs. On September 11, 1940, the U.S. Navy opened Naval Air Station Lee Field in honor of Ensign Bejamin Lee, who had lost his life in a crash at Killinghome, England, during World War I. In August 1943, the facility was renamed Naval Air Station Green Cove Springs and consisted of four asphalt runways. One of the Marine Corps aviators training in the F4U Corsair Operational Training Unit at Lee Field in early 1945 was eventual television personality Ed McMahon. After the war, NAS Green Cove Springs was downgraded in