Navajo Spring, Manitou Springs, Colorado: September 6, 2012
Navajo Spring Manitou Springs, Colorado, USA
Just off of Main Street in historic Manitou Springs, at the back of the popcorn and candy store in front of the amusement arcade, a natural soda spring comes out of the wall in a decorated font. It is one of eight famous natural springs that put this town on the map. The spring was initially visited by Native American Indians who sought their healing and spiritual powers, which some believed were gifted by the great spirit called Manitou.
They were then frequented by white Euro-American settlers, who pushed the tribes out and commercialized the area. Legend has it that the Utes placed a curse on all whites that the Westerners could never have a successful business in this place because of the commercialization of this particular spring. By the late 1880s, the Westerners built a large bathhouse and spa, as well as a bottling plant, on this former location but did not succeed. The waters, however, were famous throughout America at that time and place.
The spring waters are fissured through rock fractures from the rainwater and snowmelt from Pikes Peak. Water reaching the depths becomes heated and mineralized, flowing up through the Ute Pass fault zone into limestone caverns that carbonate them and are tapped into by natural springs or wells. Each spring in the area has its distinct taste and flavor. This particular spring originally had a bowl-like concretion of calcium carbonate large enough to dip or wash oneself in.
From 1871-1972, Chief Joseph Tafoya – Chief Joe “Little Deer” and his family came to this spot to do authentic Indian dances and songs from the Tewa tribe of the Pueblo Reservation of Santa Clara, New Mexico. In 1889, Jerome Wheeler built a 3 story bottling plant east of the arcade. He used these waters to bottle up to 5,000 gallons of water daily, selling it worldwide as table water for the famous non-alcoholic Giner Champagne. After the collapse of the plant, the spring fell into abuse and was restored in 1991 by Manitou’s residents and donors.
Navajo Spring: “Chief Joseph Tafoya – Chief Joe ‘Little Deer’ 1891-1972: Generations of the Tafoya family have presented authentic Indian dances and songs on this site and at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum since 1925. The Tafoya Family Dancers are members of the Tewa tribe from the Pueblo Reservation of Santa Clara, New Mexico, and descendants of the ancient Puye Cliff Dwellers. For 15 years, Chief Joseph Little Deer served both as governor of the Santa Clara Reservation and Chairman for the All Pueblo Indian Council. He introduced a democratic form of government on the reservation, opened his home to orphaned Indian children, and worked tirelessly to improve the living conditions of his people. Chief Little Deer married Petra Suazo, a great niece of Cheif Manitou so named for his active promotion of Manitou Springs at the turn of the century. Chief Manitou danced for 20 summers at the Cliff Dwellings museum. Navajo Spring is one of the seven natural soda-type springs that led to the settlement of Manitou. The early French trappers named the bordering creek “Fountaine qui Bouille”, the Boiling Water. Mineral deposits containing large amounts of carbonate of lime created a natural basin where the Indians bathed their sick and wounded. The white mineral basin now is hidden under the arcade floor. In 1889, Jerome Wheeler built a 3-story bottling plant east of the arcade and used Navajo Spring for bottling up to 5000 gallons of water a day. The water was sold worldwide as table water of the popular non-alcoholic Ginger Champagne. Navajo Spring was restored in 1991 by generous assistance from various donors” ~ sign outside the Spring.
7 Minute Spring – Explorations around Manitou Springs, Colorado.
The Magical Mineral Springs of Manitou ~ 354 Manitou Ave, Manitou Springs, Colorado ~ Article by Thomas Baurley, Leaf McGowan, Techno Tink Research
The little touristy village of Manitou Springs is most famous for its mineral springs, which well up through eight fonts (previously ten fonts, upwards of 50 springs) peppered throughout the town. These springs are free to visit, and each holds its own variation of minerals, magic, folklore, and healing properties that visitors have sought throughout the ages. Each has its unique flavor, natural carbonation, and effervescence.
This valley was originally heavily frequented by various Native American tribes who visited Fountain Creek and its natural springs for their healing magic, offering homage and great respect to the spiritual powers that dwell here. They believed these magical springs were the gift of the Great Spirit Manitou, after which the town and valley were named. They brought their sick here for healing. The aboriginal inhabitants and visitors of the area called the “Great Spirit” as “Manitou”, and felt these mineral springs was its breath, as the source of the bubbles in the spring water. This made the waters and grounds extremely sacred.
The Ute, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and many other tribes came here to partake of the great spirit’s breath. They would heal their sick here, collect the waters, stay for winters, and share in the waters as an area of peace where no conflict was allowed. There were believed to have been ten natural springs in the valley. The Euro-Americans caused conflicts and skirmishes with the Natives, pushing them out so they could utilize the valley for business, resort, tourism, and commerce. It is said that after the Natives left, they cursed the area for the Whites and that no company would ever succeed there. Some believe Manitou Springs has since been an ever-changing valley with businesses coming and going, failing and closing, and new ones coming in and replacing those that left.
Stephen Harriman Long was one of the first white explorers to record the waters in 1820. The expedition’s botanist and geologist, Edwin James, detailed the healing nature of the waters. The explorer George Frederick Ruxton wrote in his travel about these “boiling waters” as well that “… the basin of the spring was filled with beads and wampum, pieces of red cloth and knives, while the surrounding trees were hung with strips of deer skin, cloth, and moccasins”. Throughout the world, it is a common practice to leave similar objects, items, and cultural artifacts around the world at magical and healing springs, wells, and bodies of water.
Iron Spring: Explorations around Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Nearly 50 years later, Dr. William Abraham Bell and General William Jackson Palmer made plans to develop a health resort here during the Civil War with “a vision of dreamy summer villas nestled in the mountains with grand hotels and landscaped parks clustered around the springs” that they called “Fountain Colony” and “La Font.” It became Colorado’s first resort town. By 1871, white settlers had begun developing the area for tourism, health care, and profit.
A resort was soon developed here, taking advantage of the waters and incorporating them into medicinal and healing water therapies. This brought great prosperity to the region. By 1873, a developer named Henry McAllister, who worked for Palmer, spread the news about the medicinal benefits of the Springs and pushed for it to become a spa resort with an “incomparable climate and scenery” as its backdrop.
Shoshone Spring: Explorations around Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Then came various medicinal practitioners, such as Doctor Edwin Solly, who pushed the area as a resort for healing and therapy. They preached that the combined waters to drink, soak in, and breathe pure air mixed with the sunny climate would be the most effective prescription to treat tuberculosis. The commercial businesses began to claim the various springs, enclosing some of them as the village grew.
The first was the Cheyenne Spring House, established as a red sandstone brick, conical-roof structure. Immediately after, over 50 wells and springs were drilled, many enclosed. Once popularity disappeared and “dried up,” many of these springs were capped, paved, and closed. However, as the fad died, medical centers and hospitals around the United States improved.
Manitou became forgotten and suffered abandonment. The Mineral Springs Foundation was formed in 1987 as an all-volunteer 501(c)3 non-profit to protect, improve, maintain, and manage the springs. It targets the restoration of some springs and promotes their popularity once again. The Foundation hosts walking tours called “Springabouts” every Saturday from Memorial Day to Labor Day, beginning downtown. Tours can be arranged by visiting the Tourist center or calling 719-685-5089.
Upon request, the visitor center will provide maps, brochures, detailed content charts, and sampling cups. They can also be found on their website at http://www.manitoumineralsprings.org. The series of springs has been developed as a National Register of Historic Places district and is located in one of the country’s largest districts of its kind. It was initially called the “Saratoga of the West” and established as a resort community within a spectacular setting at the edge of the Rocky Mountains along the base of Pikes Peak. Numerous bottling companies moved into the area, making a profit on the waters, the most famous of which was “Manitou Springs water” and was sold globally.
7 Minute Spring : Explorations around Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Geology: The waters come from two sources in the Rampart Range and Ute Pass: “deep-seated waters” that travel through limestone caverns and drainage systems created by karst aquifers. The water dissolves the limestone and absorbs carbonic acid, carbon dioxide, and other minerals, making it “effervescent” or slightly naturally carbonated. Volcanic and inner core processes heat it. Through time, the waters return to the surface naturally using an artesian process rising to the surface, collecting soda, minerals, and sodium bicarbonate upwards. The other sources of water are Fountain Creek and Williams Canyon, snow melt, rainwater, and surface waters.
The warm water then flows into a limestone cavern, where it becomes carbonated and springs forth to the surface in natural and human-drilled locations. Most of these waters take thousands of years to complete their voyage from the mountain snow-capped peaks down to the inner earth and back up to the surface, freeing their content and solutions from being affected by industry, development, and atmospheric contamination.
Navajo Spring: Explorations around Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Cheyenne Spring – This natural sweet soda spring comes from limestone aquifers and is believed to be over 20,000 years old.
Iron Spring – The Iron Spring is named after its harsh, foul, iron-tasting flavor and content. It was a man-made spring drilled in the 1800s and prescribed to patients for iron deficiency.
Lithia / Twin Spring – This is a combined location of two man-made drilled springs—Twin Springs and Lithia Springs. It is popular for its Lithium content and sweet taste, calcium, lithium, and potassium content. It’s popular to mix it in lemonade.
Navajo Spring is a natural soda spring over which commercial development was built. It is now within and beneath the popcorn and candy store. This was the most popular spring, frequented by Native Americans and early Euro-American settlers, and was the founding spring for the village. It originally fed a large bathhouse and bottling plant, bringing fame to the town.
Old Ute Chief Spring – is a defunct spring outside the old Manitou Springs bottling plant.
Seven Minute Spring – A man-made spring drilled in 1909 to enhance the neighboring hotel’s tourist attraction. Its unique carbonization caused it to erupt like a geyser every 7 minutes. It became dormant until the 1990s, when it was re-drilled, and the surrounding park was established.
Shoshone Spring—This natural spring had sulfur content and was prescribed by various physicians for curative powers before modern medicine became popular and effective.
Soda Spring – located in the spa stores next to the arcade.
Stratton Spring—The Stratton Foundation created this man-made drilled spring as a service to Manitou Springs village, where tourists could come and partake of its waters. It is dedicated to early Native American Trails.
Wheeler Spring—This is another man-made drilled spring donated to the city by settler Jerome Wheeler of the New York Macy’s. Wheeler resided and banked in the town during the mining and railroad period. His former home is located where the current post office is today.
