Crowders Mountain PoInt of Interest
All Healing Springs Ruins



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Name: All Healing Springs Ruins
Type: Man-made
GPS Coordinates: Latitude:  N 35° 14.658'
Longitude:  W 081° 16.168'
Elevation:  789 ft

Latitude:  N 35° 14.652'
Longitude:  W 081° 16.186'
Elevation:  794 ft
Orientation:
PoInt Reached From: Linwood Historical Area, near Linwood Access Area
Description: Ruins
Dimensions: Acres
Interior Features: Buildings all gone...
Exterior Features: Some spring-related constructs remain, a cistern, a holding wall, spring pits, a couple of "donut" pools, a breached dam...

All Healing Springs

AHS Brochure


Link to the survey by Dr. J. Alan May

See article Taking the Waters by Dr. J. Alan May for info on All Healing Springs - NCA_51.pdf




from

Gaston County, North Carolina: A Brief History

 By Rita Wehunt-Black

CHAPTER 5 - Taking the Waters

Native Americans were probably the first humans to see Crowders Mountain and the mineral springs located there...

  During the late 1800s, Dr. Francis M. Garett of eastern North Carolina built and managed a private health resort at All Healing Springs, which is located northeast of Crowders Mountain.  Like many physicians of his day, Dr. Garrett believed that drinking and bathing in mineral waters could help disease.
  An archaeological survey and testing program was started in 1995 to clear the area around the springs, recover artifacts and information about the resort and school and map the area.  A report entitled Taking the Waters: All Healing Springs Spa and Nineteenth-Century Homeopathy written by Dr. J. Alan May describes the results of the survey, along with a historical overview, and was published in 2002 in North Carolina Archaeology.  Dr. May's complete report is a "must-read" for anyone interested in the history of Crowders Mountain, All Healing Springs and Linwood College.  Dr. May opens his report with this abstract:

Within the southern Piedmont of North Carolina are a number of strems and springs as well as a temperate climate.  During the latter half of the nienteenth century there arose an interest in homeopathic medicine and related cures.  Principal among these were healing springs and water treatments.  Local entrepeneurs built a hotel/resort in western Gaston County, North Carolina near Crowders Mountain to cater to an increasingly affluent local populace.  An archaeological survey and testing program was undertaken to recover artifacts and information about the resort.  Several foundations associated with the spa-hotel, dormitory, and residence were identified and collected.  Much of the area has returned to secondary growth forest and identifying spring and building sites described in the literature was difficult.  Two cisterns along with the principal springs were relocated, cleared of debris, and mapped.

...

  When opened on June 1, 1881, the resort consisted of the Mountain View Hotel and tweleve mineral spring bathing and drinking areas.  This resort quickly grew, and by 1884 the resort had its own post office, nearby merchants, private residences and farms.  Dr. Garrett sold small plots adjacent to his resort where the owners built small cottages.  The cottage owners had to sign a deed stating that all meals would be taken at the Mountain View Hotel.
  On July 25, 1884, the Mountain View Hotel was severly damaged in a fire that originated in the kitchen.  The hotel reopened in May 1885, and by 1888 the resort had not only been completely rebuilt, but also had been expanded.  In addition to a new hotel and cottages, the resort now included a large amusement pavilion with billards, a tenpin alley and a gymnasium with space for rollerskating and bicycle riding.  Adjoining the gym was a ballroom with twenty-four hundred feet of floor space for dancing. Walking trails to the summit of Crowders Mountain and outdoor sports facilities were also added.

...

All that was not carried away through the years from the All Healing Springs and Linwood College site is documented in the lengthly archaeological survey written by Dr. J. Alan May.  Besides the two rock cisterns, the following is only a small portion of what was gleaned from the site during the archaeological survey: ...


During the winter months of 1995–1996, 40 meter-wide transects
oriented with compass headings were run in the area identified as the
location of All Healing Springs (Kings Mountain, North Carolina Fifteen
TAKING THE WATERS
79
Minute Quadrangle 1914). Using this technique we identified the footings
and chimney falls of several buildings. We also were also able to relocate
two concrete cisterns noted in photographs of buildings from the Linwood
College era. In the vicinity of these cisterns was a set of steps leading
down to another spring and a concrete lined discharge culvert. Iron pipes
pierced the walls of this drainage at approximately 10-foot (3 meter)
intervals. Currently, many of these pipes are dry but a trickle of water
flows from a few suggesting a drain field. This area is marshy with
standing water. In photographs from the first decade of the twentieth
century, this area appears as a maintained lawn with a gravel path to the
cistern. No evidence of this path remain. Photographs of the area also
indicate that an octagonal covering was built over the large spring, but
today no evidence of it remains. A breached dam was also identified
during this initial survey and is recognizable in the woodcut of the spa in
the 1888 brochure (Figure 2).


pg. 108    MINING INDUSTRY

ALL HEALING SPRINGS, GASTON COUNTY.

These springs are between 4 and 5 miles form Bessemer City.  The springs are four in number, the one called "All Healing" being the one most used and was the only one sampled.  The other springs are known as "Iron," "Sulpher" and "Union."  All are covered in with brickwork and the outflow is through pipes.  The flow of all is slight.  The water of the All Healing Spring is odorless, but has a slight taste.  The summer temperature is 15.6 deg C. (60 deg F.).

ANALYSIS OF ALL HEALING SPRING MINERAL WATER.
No. 681.

Name and Formula
 Parts per 1,000,000
Potash (K2O)
Soda (Na2O)
Lime (CaO)
Magnesia (MgO)
Ferric Oxide (Fe2O2)
Sulphuric oxide (SO3)
Chlorine (Cl)
Phosphoric oxide (P2O2)
Silica (SiO2)
  Total solids at 110 deg C
 .6
2.4
3.5
2.0
.4
4.9
2.8
trace
8.9
57.0


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