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The Great Western Springs
Early Virginians often journeyed to luxurious springs resorts to soothe their ills and socialize in a luxurious manner. Two regional resorts still offer the grand tradition.
Date published: 9/27/2003
EN COACHES were ready to depart from Farmer's Hotel at the western corner of Fredericksburg's Caroline Street. A resident recorded that one team of thoroughbred sorrels made Chancellor's Tavern, 10 miles away, in one hour. The time was the 1830s and the travelers were en route to the springs of western Virginia. There, in the cool shadows of the Allegheny Mountains, they would "take the waters" to cure their ills, court, dance and dine. Best of all, they would renew old acquaintances, for they were a close-knit group. Virginia writer John Esten Cooke described the springs-goers as "a single family, everybody knowing everybody else." Their journey may have been companionable, but it was not easy. Today, a drive of about four hours takes Fredericksburg-area residents to The Homestead (Hot Springs) or The Greenbrier (White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.) In the 1830s and beyond, the trip lasted about four days, with rough roads and uncertain weather. Some springs-goers from Washington came by steamboat and connected to the stagecoaches at Fredericksburg. In his book, "The History of The Greenbrier," Robert S. Conte, The Greenbrier's historian, describes the 1836 springs journey by stagecoach of Edward Hill, a farmer who lived near Fredericksburg. Hill wrote in his journal that he rode backward for nine hours, had "a miserably mean dinner" at a tavern near Gordonsville, and got up at 3 a.m. for the next day's journey. Early travelers went to White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County (then part of Virginia) and Hot Springs in Bath County, but they also enjoyed many other springs that have now been lost to time. Starting in the early 19th century, "The Great Western Springs Tour" began at Warm Springs and Hot Springs with the next stop White Sulphur and then on to Old Sweet, Salt Sulphur, Blue Sulphur, Gray Sulphur and Red Sulphur. New Yorker John Edwards Caldwell described his visits to the springs in his little book, "A Tour Through Part of Virginia in the Summer of 1808." He celebrated the Fourth of July at Old Sweet, where "music and dancing frequently crown the evening." His next stop was Red Sulphur, "a place of great celebrity," where he witnessed "surprising cures."
Date published: 9/27/2003
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