Inside the Cistern at the Gamble Mansion

We are visiting the Gable Mansion/ Plantation in Palmetto (Ellenton), Florida.  Here there was a large 40,000 gallon Tabby cistern for collecting and supplying drinking water. The cistern was covered with a wood shingled roof and had fish in it to “purify” the water and eat the bugs and algae. Doesn’t the inside look inviting? Also there was a sugar mill to crush the sugar cane there on the 3,500 acre plantation.  The plantation had been occupied by the Confederates during the civil war and during or after this Union troops found the plantation and blew up the sugar processing mill.