CREATIVE HISTORY : A CLOSER LOOK : THE COMMUNITIES : SPRINGDALE

SPRINGDALE

The current historical writings about Springdale are surprisingly minimal considering the town claimed to have been one of the first health resorts in Colorado Territory. There are very few published sources, and what information has been found is mainly from newspapers and a handful of unpublished sources. Springdale’s history will be presented in a similar fashion as the biography of Mary Kingsley, an analysis of the town on a source-by-source basis. These are preliminary findings and a great deal of additional research must be done in order to uncover the town’s past.

[published sources] [newspapers] [personal papers] [future research]

Published Sources
Located approximately fifteen miles northwest of Boulder in Left Hand Canyon, little is known of Springdale’s beginnings. The town developed around the 1870s with tellurium mines such as the Ellen, Grand Central, Gladiator, King William, and the Rip Van Dam. These mines made economic contribution to the town, but theys were minor producers compared to others in the district. Over three hundred people lived in the area during the early boom, but by 1882 only fifty residents were officailly accounted for.

Unlike other mountain mining towns, Springdale’s economy revolved around its natural hot springs rather than mining. The Seltzer House and the mineral waters of the Selter Springs became the town’s main attraction. Located at the top of a gulch the natural springs, originally called Peabody’s Hot Springs, was later named after the Seltzer Springs in Germany because of similarities of the water’s mineral composition. After several ownership changes, C. Edgar Smith took over the property around 1880 and improved the twenty acres of the Seltzer House grounds, which consisted of a boarding house and ten small cottages, and began a proper advertising campagin to bring more tourists to experience the mountains scenery, enjoy the spring’s hot or cold mineral baths, and drink the curative natrually carbonated water.
[Back to Top]

Newspapers
So far newspaper have been the only source to provide hints to Springdale’s possible formation. Early prospecting and exploring were done up Left Hand Canyon and along James Creek, but it was not until the 1870s that people began settling in the area that would become Springdale. Small camps or settlements usually become an official community when they acquire a post office, and in July 1876 a new town was on the map with the new “post office [that] is called Springdale.” That same month Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Pease opened a new hotel catering to tourists and invalids searching for relief in the mineral hot springs. Though unnammed, it is believed the Pease’s hotel would later become the Seltzer House.

The following year newspapers reported on the popularity of the Seltzer Springs and the hotel despite the changes in ownership. Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Evans became the new managers of the Seltzer Hotel (as it was referred to at this point) but it is not known if they purchased the property. Whether they owned the structure or not mattered little since the couple only lasted one year. H. A. Jackson followed becoming the new proprietor of the Seltzer House in May 1878 before one more ownership change took place in the summer of 1880. Multiple advertisements made no mention of a name behind the new management but C. Edgar Smith, who is mentioned in some published sources, could be a likely possibility.

Perhaps it was during the new ownership that the marketing of Springdale Seltzer water began. Advertisements for this “miracle” water in the late 1880s claimed it cured “indigestion, headache, rheumatism or derangements of kidney or liver.” It is not clear if the Seltzer House bottled and sold the seltzer water under the name of The Seltzer Mineral Springs Company, or if this was a completely separate company.

Through the 1880s and early 1890s newspaper coverage of the Seltzer House typically consisted of advertisements and reports in the social columns providing a who’s who of visitors to the mountain resort.

Washed away in the May 1894 flood, nothing has been found to indicate when the Seltzer House was rebuiltor when it began operating again. A further investigation into late 1890’s newspapers needs to take place. The resort finally succumbed to fire July 15, 1903, destroying the entire structure, the furnishing, as well as the personal property of some of the guests.

To gain a better understanding of Springdale and the Seltzer House a much more thorough investigation of the local and Front Range newspapers needs to be conducted. The current research has focused only of the sources made available through the Colorado’s Collaborative Digitization Program. Tracking articles and advertisements through newspapers might show additional town activities and events, clarify the Seltzer House’s ownership changes, more details about the destructive fire, pinpoint with the resort was rebuilt, and how the town slowly deteriorated over time.
[Back to Top]

Personal Papers and Marketing Materials
The next set of sources: personal papers, newspaper clippings, and some marketing brochures, all dated around 1965 and were created by Al E. Freel, a retired research engineer living in Boulder. Since no corroborating evidence has yet been found to verify the information presented in these documents, they will only be used as guidelines for further research.

What make these sources so difficult to use are the multiple contradictions and key omissions by Freel himself. For example, he states that a Frederick Ayer owned and operated the Seltzer House from 1875 to 1903, makes no mention that the structure was destroyed in a flood in 1894, and provides a contradictory title of ownership list that puts Ayer’s ownership dates into question.

In addition to Freel’s dubious history of the Seltzer House, brochures for his radium-enriched Curie Spring’s health water are also quite outlandish. Through his brochures, Freel reveals himself to be an aged quack medicine promoter becoming one more interesting participant in the history of the Springdale.

In his papers Freel claims that Frederick Ayer, of sarsaparilla fame, came to Boulder from Lowell, Massachusetts in 1875. Supposedly Ayer realized the potential of the naturally carbonated water bubbling up from what was known as the Rocky Mountain Springs, and conceived the Springdale Health Resort, later known as the Seltzer House. Nothing else is presented about Ayer’s participation. In order to legitimize the health benefits stated by Ayer and himself, Freel includes quotes from numerous local physicians who claimed cures for an extensive list of diseases and ailments, and prescribed the water to their patients.

In 1916 the Springdale property was purchased by Lt. Colonel W. P. Harlow, M. D. of the United States Army Medical Corps at Fitzsimons Hospital in Denver. It was during this time the popularity of using radium water to cure health problems was at a height. Due to the radium found in the water, it is believed Harlow renamed the location Curie Springs in honor of Marie Curie, the discoverer of the radioactive element radium.

Freel’s first encounter with Curie Springs is said to have been in 1924 when his wife, struggling with a persistent illness, drank the water and ultimately cured her. Making some preliminary tests on the water in 1926 Freel became so interested in the radium-enriched liquid he purchased the property in 1946 from Dr. Harlow’s estate. With more detailed testing Freel realized that not only did the water contained high levels of radium, but it also had what he believed to be an important plasma-like gas with “life-force gas with recharging powers” calling it “plasmatron.”

Although the craze for radium water had been subsiding for many years, it is clear from the content of his papers and brochures that Freel boasted that the water’s radium level and the facility’s radon levels were the highest in the country. Surprisingly, most of his marketing took place in the 1950s and 1960s, decades after the dangers of radium were well documented.
[Back to Top]

Future Primary Source Research
Because there is no definitive history written about Springdale, opportunities for creative research techniques and careful primary source analysis are available to reveal a new chapter of Boulder County history. Below is a preliminary research outline that could uncover new information and research directions.

Mining Claims Records: These could uncover individual property owners, miners living in the area, and mine investors.

Deeds: Preliminary searches show a few properties bought and sold in Springdale, but finding more specific township coordinates might indicate some of the earliest properties and owners.

City/County Directories: Some county directories dedicate a few pages to the smaller mining towns. Any information about Springdale’s businesses and residents from these directories could create an excellent research topic outline.

Newspapers: Only a handful of newspapers were examined for this preliminary town history. Many more editions need to be combed through in order to track down more details about events occuring in Springdale.

Personal Histories: Discovering more about some of the key people mentioned above could inspire new research directions or expose new facts. Frederick Ayer, the supposed developer of Springdale’s first mineral springs resort, is of obvious interest. Land records show Ayer and his son in Boulder during the appropriate time frame. Could Al Freel’s Seltzer Spring’s history have some truth to it?
[Back to Top]