Clarktown Springs

Mist Flowers blooming by Eastland Road on the Clarktown Springs property

Clarktown Springs 

Dana & Kenny Koogler 

Saturday Sept. 21, 2019

Blog by Dana Koogler 

Directions to Visit Clarktown Springs:

From the intersection of Hwy 70 in the vicinity of Bon De Croft turn left onto 

Eastland Road and drive 1 mile.  The springs will be on your left.   The way point is 

35.933901, -85.310518

    Kenny and I were both born and raised in Virginia.  Our parents and grandparents were Virginia born and bred.     I had the good fortune to have parents who were very keen on history.    It wasn't just an academic interest in history either when it came to my folks.  

They really liked all sorts of family history and American history.    It was just who they were.

It is who I am.    Kenny is also interested, but to a lesser degree.     One of the more interesting periods of history was the water therapy era! 

   Back during the times of our great, great grandparents in the 1800s a fad arose among the leisure class of Americans.      "Taking the waters" was all sorts of things from drinking spring water believed to have medicinal properties, soaking in springs or baths believed to have curative effects, to very regimented procedures by "water doctors".   I believe from what I've read that it was for the most part harmless quackery.     It  all began in the 1840s and by the 1850s resorts had come up all over the U.S.A. for this purpose.   The Victorian Era was the peak of this practice.   Virginia is peppered with springs as many places in Tennessee are also.

The area in the Alleghany Mountains and at their feet was a Mecca of these type places.   

       Some that come to mind are: 

• Orkney Springs 
• Rockbridge Alum Springs
• Hot Springs
• Warm Springs
• Bear Lithia Spring
• Blue Ridge Springs
• Botetourt Springs
• and right across the line into West Virginia --Berkeley Springs and White Sulphur Springs

Seawright Spring in Virginia where I went with Aunt Mary Sue as a child to get water for drinking was set to join the ranks until the resort hotel burned before it was even finished.

It was called Hotel Shenandoah.   It was about 1893 when this took place.  It was ruined.

Back then and for a long time after Seawright Spring was a place to come get great drinking water and swim in a pool of it.    

       The American Civil War destroyed many of these resorts.   Later the advent of antibiotics and modern medicines led to folks losing belief in hydrotherapy.   Leisure activities were looked down on as frivolous back then so part of the attraction of these places was that it gave folks the excuse they needed to take a vacation, be lazy, go husband hunting, gamble, drink and generally carouse.    It went under the guise of going for one's health which is always important.

Certainly some of the spring water had properties that probably did alleviate some ailments. A good vacation can often alleviate mental, emotional and physical symptoms.  The nice thing about it is that these things if they don't help most generally won't harm.

      Tennessee was no different.  The area we live in now had many spring resorts for taking the waters.    Out near Six Mile were a number of these establishments.   Alleghany Springs was one that has a historical marker these days. Montvale Springs is another that comes to mind.

The spring resorts extended outward from the mountains to the table lands of the Cumberland Plateau.     Some of these are listed below:  Many of these spring resorts persisted until the 1940s or 60s. 

• The Donoho at Red Boiling Springs
• Bon Aqua in Hickman County
• Kingston Springs
• Castallian Springs
• Jefferson Springs
• Craggie Hope
• Tyree Springs
• Seven Springs
• Oliver Springs
• Tate Spring

Here is a list of many of the springs and what fate befell them. 

   I recently found some fascinating information regarding 

Clarktown Springs from the Bon Air Historical Society.      Several months back Marvin Bullock took us round on a tour of Sparta and White County.   It was chock full of interesting sights, stories and facts.   It was hard for me to keep up with it all, but I had me a pad and pen making notes on what I wanted to return to see.  One of the places we passed was Clarktown Springs.    I recently moved it up onto my short list to visit.  I found it was now county property.    Ok for me to stop by and get photos and check out the spring house.      There was a grand hotel on the site back in the day which is now long gone. If memory serves it burned down.  The house with the pretty spiral staircase is a private home.   It is off limits and has already suffered at the hands of vandals.   There is plenty of space to pull over next door at the spring house.   The great news about the house is that they plan to restore it.  It makes me happy to know such a lovely home will not sit empty.    Please respect the boundaries of the property. 

Below is an image of what it was like back in its heyday.   It certainly was lovely.  

    

   The spring house is very pretty.  It is falling into serious disrepair.  Back during the 1970s some men dug out the springs and uncovered them.  They repaired the place and it was better for a time.

Now the springs are filling in with sod, grasses, weeds, and the water that does flow is stagnant, filled with rust, muck, and is not at all appealing as a place to drink or soak.  Clarktown Springs is a special place now as then though.  I wish it could be fixed up as a roadside picnic destination.  It was so significant back in its day and the sentimental, romantic in me hates to see it deteriorate and be forgotten.    

 Private home next door to the site of Clarktown Springs

 Graceful spiral staircase on the side of the house

 Yellow fall flowers on the grounds

 bench by the road-- I feel sure this is on the same as the house, but I am not sure why it is out near the road.

 Above: side view of the spring house

 Above: I thought the springs were supposed to be under this shelter, but if that is the case all I see is damp earth and it is filled in.

 Above and below:  The water is filled with leaves, rust, algae and looks nasty, but it must be fairly clean for it still supports life.  Lots of frogs and minnows!

Above:  Clarktown Spring shelter from the front

      Another good resource I recently learned of came from Bob England, again.. Bon Air Historical Society. ... is a book by Will Allen titled The Sunny Side of the Cumberland. It is historical fiction.  In other words it appears to me he used his own experiences of the time or stories that had been passed along about real places, events and people and wove them into a story.   Clarktown Spring and the resort hotel is mentioned in the story.  The chapter does a good deal to flesh out the way things were during that era.   It was a far more romantic and genteel time than today.    Today we have the Kardashsians and various Instagram Models flashing every ounce of their skin and nothing is ever left to the imagination.   Reading about folks who thought seeing the ruffles of a woman's petticoat or her ankles was a very provocative thing is humorous, but sweetly old fashioned.

I am not one of those folks who wishes to live during a different time period, but I do find myself wishing things could slow down.  It would not be a bad thing to go on vacation and "take the waters" somewhere with a lot less excitement.   Here is a link to page 79 of that book that tells about Clarktown Springs and what it was like to be there.  

      One other place I would definitely like to visit is Red Boiling Springs and Castallian Springs up north of here.   It sounds like it was a little Las Vegas strip in the Cumberland Plateau back in  the day.  Once I have visited I will write it up as I have this one.