The Elixir of Life as Therapy
Healing Springs, Mineral Springs, and Hot Springs
This week’s email goes back in time to a period in history when people believed natural and mineral springs offered the promise of healing and renewal.
The Elixir of Life as Therapy
By Tom Poland
Old Jed Clampett was shootin’ at some food, and up through the ground came a-bubblin’ crude. Well you can’t drink crude and you sure don’t want to soak in it. Water, the elixir of life, however, was made to drink and bathe in and, in so doing, reputed health cures bubble up from the earth. When modern medicine fails many people turn to springs hoping to heal various ailments.
In Blackville, South Carolina, you’ll find Healing Springs, a long-time destination for people seeking natural remedies. In short, people love to drink the water there. Known as God’s Acre Healing Springs, one Lute Boylston deeded the springs to God in 1944.
Gallons gush forth. Back a ways I knew a woman who regularly made a 120-mile round trip to the springs. Laden with plastic milk jugs she came home with gallons of the therapeutic spring water and swore by it.
If some stubborn ailment plagues you, at the end of your drive, a cure may be waiting. Many others have long made pilgrimages to this Barnwell County site to fill jugs, bottles, and whatever holds water. It’s not for the taste, although the water tastes fine. No, they come to take reputed healing powers back home.
American Indians considered the waters sacred. They bathed in the springs for restorative power when ailing or injured. Healing Springs’ fame skyrocketed during the American Revolution. A historical marker chronicles the legend. “By tradition, Healing Springs got its name during the Revolutionary War. In 1781 after a bloody battle at nearby Windy Hill Creek, four wounded Tories sent inland from Charleston by General Banastre (“the Butcher”) Tarleton were left in the care of two comrades who had orders to bury them when they died. Luckily, the Indians found them and took them to their secret, sacred healing springs. Six months later the Charleston garrison was astonished by the reappearance of the six men. All were strong and healthy.”
The water surges out of the ground in three places where spigots make it convenient to collect. I stopped by the springs recently and three people were filling milk jugs and soft drink bottles with artesian water that surged up and out pipes. Folks come from all over. One lady told me she was from Pennsylvania. Some describe the springs as “a hidden gem in the middle of nowhere.”
Drive northeast 248 miles to Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina’, and you’ll find Mineral Spring Park. In 1858 Davey Crockett Fuquay and Stephen Fuquay were plowing on the family farm when they discovered Fuquay Mineral Spring. It’s believed to have healing powers and, as with Blackville Healing Springs, visitors came from far and wide to partake of the mineral waters. The resort town of Fuquay Springs developed around the spring in the early 1900s. Folks know it today as Fuquay-Varina.
Today, the mineral spring is commemorated within the Fuquay Mineral Spring Park where it looks more like a stream than a spring. Located near downtown Fuquay-Varina, Fuquay Mineral Spring Park offers an easily accessible space with a restored springhouse, memorial brick path, picnic tables, footbridge, administrative offices, and finely manicured landscaping.
As for those fellows plowing, historians question just who discovered the mineral spring. Was it Fuquay’s son Stephen or grandson David Crockett Fuquay? What matters, however, is the family took action. They channeled the water into a pool and drank from it. Generous folk, they hung a gourd from a tree so others could enjoy the water. The word spread that folks who drank a good bit of the mineral spring cured an assortment of illnesses and conditions.
An exhibit on the Mineral Spring states: “For complaints of the kidneys, liver and stomach, the water has afforded complete relief. Many cases of heart trouble, brought on and accentuated by indigestion, have disappeared entirely.” A test revealed that the water contained calcium bicarbonate, calcium silicate, calcium sulphate, iron and aluminum oxides, potassium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, magnesium bicarbonate, magnesium sulphate, and silica.
At one time a train made daily trips to the Fuquay Mineral Spring so city dwellers could enjoy the water’s healing properties.
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