Historic Florida Nudist Colony Seeks New Owner After 67 Years

A longtime nudist property in Florida is back in the headlines as its owners attempt to sell the Florida Naturist Park, a community with nearly seven decades of colorful, and sometimes controversial, history.
Founded in 1959 by carpenter Thomas Ward Gulvin, the camp sat on more than 200 acres of wooded land about an hour northwest of Tampa. At its peak, hundreds of visitors and residents were drawn to the park’s anything-goes atmosphere. Unlike many other nudist resorts of the era, the Florida Naturist Park had few rules. Guests could sunbathe, play volleyball, and socialize freely without the typical restrictions on single men or swinging that were common elsewhere.

But the property’s story has also included its share of drama over the years. Incidents ranging from a drowning in the lake to unusual wildlife encounters added to the park’s colorful reputation. More troubling was a discriminatory rule written into early property deeds that required owners to be white, effectively excluding Black members for decades.

Today the aging nudist colony is being offered for sale, with current owners hoping a new steward can move the property forward while leaving behind the more troubling chapters of its past. For someone willing to take on the challenge, the site could represent both a complicated piece of naturist history and a chance to reshape what the next generation of nudist communities might look like.