Name: Mineral Wells, Texas
Address: Mineral Wells, TX

How the Crazy Well Got Its Name RoadyGoat

Of all the wells that gave Mineral Wells its name, one became legendary, and it got there with a strange nickname. According to the local tale, an older woman who was thought to be mentally unsettled took to sitting by one particular well, drinking the mineral water day after day. As the story goes, over time she seemed to steady and improve, and folks around town started calling it the Crazy Well. Whether the water did anything or the rest was pure coincidence, the name stuck like a burr, and it turned out to be marketing gold. Crazy Water became the town's most famous brand, and the word crazy became almost a civic mascot. To this day there is a giant sign spanning the old Bankhead Highway that reads, welcome to Mineral Wells, the home of crazy, and it was rebuilt in twenty twenty after decades of being gone. There is even a restored Crazy Water Hotel downtown, first opened back in nineteen thirteen, whose earliest guest was the sitting governor of Texas, and it later drew touring stars like Judy Garland during the war years. One offbeat nickname on one well, and the whole town leaned into it for more than a century.

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A Boxcar of Crystals a Day RoadyGoat

Here is a fact that sounds too big for a small Texas town. In the nineteen thirties, Mineral Wells water was not just something you drove in to drink. It was a product shipped worldwide, and it made a couple of brothers a fortune. Carr and Hal Collins, who owned the Crazy Water Hotel, took the mineral water and boiled it down. When you evaporate the water off, the dissolved minerals are left behind as solid crystals, and those crystals could be packed in a box and mailed anywhere. They branded them Crazy Water Crystals, and then they did something clever. They bought up radio time, sponsoring old-time country and, as they called it, hillbilly music programs on big stations, reaching working folks all across the country during the Great Depression. By nineteen thirty-seven, the story goes, the brothers were moving roughly a boxcar-load of crystals every single day, and the crystals shipped as far as Canada, England, and Australia. A little valley in Palo Pinto County had turned a funny-tasting well into a nationwide radio-advertising machine. That is the kind of hustle the name Mineral Wells is quietly hiding.

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Did the Water Really Cure People? RoadyGoat

Let us be fair and honest about the healing-water story that built this town. The mineral water of Mineral Wells did contain real minerals, magnesium, calcium, sulfates, and famously just a trace of lithium. And that trace lithium is where a lot of the legend lived, because lithium is a genuine mood-stabilizing medicine. But here is the reality. Therapeutic lithium for psychiatric use runs in the range of hundreds of milligrams a day. The tiny trace found in the water was nowhere near that. You could not sip your way to a medical dose. As for curing rheumatism and every other ailment, the truth is that around the turn of the century, selling health tonics required almost no proof. A good anecdote beat a lab result every time. Much of what people felt was likely the placebo effect and the simple rest of a spa vacation. The government eventually agreed. In nineteen forty, federal regulators ordered the Crazy Water company to stop its unproven health advertising. So the minerals were real, the relaxation was real, but the miracle cures were the marketing. And honestly, a warm mineral bath and a slow week off still feel pretty good, no miracle required.

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Mineral Wells - Crazy Water

1881

Mineral Wells boomed as a health resort in the early 1900s after locals claimed the mineral-rich water cured ailments. The Baker Hotel, a 14-story Art Deco landmark, opened in 1929.

Mineral Wells, TX

1877

Mineral Wells is at the junction of U.S. highways 180 and 281 and on the Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway in east central Palo Pinto County. The site was settled in 1877 by J. A. Lynch, who laid out the town in 1881. In 1882 a stage line operated between Mineral Wells and Millsap, the terminus of the Texas and Pacific Railway. The local wellwater became famous for its medicinal qualities after Lynch dug the first well and cured his rheumatism with the foul-tasting water. The town boomed as a health resort after 1885, when the Crazy Well was dug. Crazy Water, said to be a sure cure for numerous disorders including hysteria and other mental problems, was bottled and shipped throughout the country. People flocked to Mineral Wells to drink its waters and bathe in specially constructed bathhouses. J. C. Son, founder of the Palo Pinto Star , wrote articles extolling the water in exchange for one of Lynch's town lots. The railroad reached Mineral Wells in 1891, and the first of several resort hotels, the Hexagon House, was built in 1897. By 1920 the town had 400 mineral wells and was billed as "the South's greatest health resort." Many visitors were attracted each June to the Texas Health Festival. The population was 577 in 1890, 2,048 in 1900, 7,890 in 1920, 6,303 in 1940, 11,053 in 1960, 18,411 in 1970, and 14,468 in 1980. In the decades between 1940 and 1970, population figures reflected the military presence at Camp Wolters ( see FORT WOLTERS MILITARY RESERVATION). In 1966 Mineral Wells had 365 businesses, including thirty-five manufacturers, thirty-seven churches, two newspapers, a hospital, a radio station, and a business college. In 1990 it had a population of 14,870 and 304 businesses. The population grew to 16,946 in 2000 with 839 businesses. Although the town remained a center for retirement, health, and recreation, it also had a healthy industrial base in the manufacturing of clay pipe, aircraft systems, plastics, electronic products, bricks, feeds, clothing, and other products. An extension of Weatherford College is located in Mineral Wells. In 1985 Shadows on the Wall , a movie, was filmed at the local Baker Hotel.

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Sam Savage

1866

Buried in the nearby Staggs Prairie Cemetery, Sam Savage (1861-1951) was a rancher, farmer, and champion fiddler. At the age of five, he survived a Comanche Indian raid on his father's farm in Parker County and lived in captivity with the Comanches for a time. The attack on Bolin Savage's homestead occurred on March 2, 1866, and was followed by a raid on his brother's farm. Both Bolin and James Savage were killed. Sam Savage, his brother, and a cousin were taken captive by the Indians. A posse headed by Parker County Judge A. J. Hunter failed to overtake the Comanches. The children were discovered by trader John Fields in November 1866 and were ransomed for the sum of $414 at Fort Arbuckle, Oklahoma. Sam Savage lived until the age of 90 to relate his experiences of life with the Indians. After a time, he and the other children adapted to their situation, learning the language and the use of a bow and arrow. In 1911, Sam Savage and the trader, John Fields, held a reunion during which many of the old tales were recounted. Sam Savage married Arizona Pierce in 1881, and they lived in Palo Pinto County until their deaths. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.

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Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway Depot

1891

The tracks of the Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Railway reached the town of Mineral Wells in 1891. This depot was built about 1903 to replace an earlier one that had burned. For the next 25 years it primarily served the hundreds of thousands of travelers who visited the town to take advantage of the mineral baths and spas. During World II, the railroad and depot served in the transportation of soldiers to and from nearby Camp Wolters. Outstanding features of the Romanesque revival style depot include its semi-circular arches and curvilinear brackets. (1985)

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Lake Mineral Wells State Park

1926

Lake Mineral Wells State Park is off U.S. Highway 180 four miles east of Mineral Wells in Palo Pinto County. The 2,905-acre park, which includes the 646-acre Lake Mineral Wells, was originally part of Camp Wolters, established in 1926 as a training ground for the Texas National Guard . During World War II the base served as an infantry training center. The army closed the camp in 1946, and in 1951 the air force took it over and changed the name to Wolters Air Force Base. The army resumed control of the site in 1956, renamed it Fort Wolters, and used it as a helicopter training center until 1974, when it was closed permanently. Some of the land was given to other agencies, but nearly 3,000 acres, including the lake, which was constructed by the city of Mineral Wells for water supply, was deeded to the state parks department. The park features steep hills, deep ravines, and some open savannah. Post oaks and blackjack oaks are scattered throughout the flat areas, while the ravines are heavily wooded with cedar, elm, pecan, cottonwood, and red oak trees. Facilities include fishing piers, a boat ramp, camping and picnicking areas, hiking and equestrian trails, and eight screened shelters.

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Mineral-Water Springs and Wells

1836

From the early days of the Republic of Texas , mineral-water springs and wells attracted health seekers. Sam Houston bathed his wounds in the waters of Sour Lake in Hardin County and in the sulfur springs of Piedmont in Grimes County. Davy Crockett is said to have visited the Texas Sour Wells in Caldwell County. A German geographer and philosopher, Ernst Kapp , established a hydropathic institute in Sisterdale, Kendall County. Springs and wells varied in location, topography, vegetation, and properties such as temperature, mineral composition, and origin. About 100 years ago the appropriation of mineral waters for medicinal purposes grew so popular that thousands of people visited springs and wells yearly. More than 100 places developed into well-known resorts. In 1888 more than 6,000 baths were taken at Hanna Springs, a small, relatively undeveloped spring in Lampasas. In the early 1900s visitors to Mineral Wells, a town of 8,000 residents, numbered 150,000 annually. In the 1930s, 80,000 people visited Marlin annually. Texas resorts also attracted celebrities: Teddy Roosevelt visited Hot Sulphur Wells outside San Antonio, and Mineral Wells hosted, to name a few, Clark Gable, Tom (Thomas Edwin) Mix , Douglas Fairbanks, and J. P. Morgan. Texas spas were unique among Texas towns and also different from resorts in the East. Daily life at these resort towns revolved around the waters. Architecture reflected the tradition. Pavilions and drinking fountains became gathering places for local citizens, depots attracted bands and drummers to meet trains, bathhouses set the scene for private ablutions, and large hotels employed big bands for entertainment. Other diversions included domino games, burro rides, picnics, and dances. Bathers overcame the fears attendant upon the theory of miasma-that harmful vapors association with swampy waters cause disease-to seek the sanative pleasures of the springs and wells. Osmotic exchanges with the water were supposed to benefit the body. Rheumatism, arthritis, and skin diseases were reportedly relieved more often than any other condition. The use of mineral springs for therapeutic purposes declined for several reasons. Many hotels burned or were washed away by floods, and rebuilding them seemed inappropriate because medicine had begun to change. With the rise of "germ theory" and the discovery of sulfa drugs and antibiotics, the belief in the usefulness of mineral water diminished. Many doctors supported water cures, but some began to eschew balneology, the science of bathing, because of some resorts' extravagant claims. In Marlin the tradition lasted into the 1960s, primarily because the medical profession appropriated the practice and transformed it into a tool for physical therapy. Other factors, such as war and depression, also hurt resorts. The railroad guaranteed the success and demise of some resorts. Tioga was founded where railroad workers stopped to drink the water. Hanna and Hancock Springs boomed after the railroad arrived at Lampasas, but when the terminus moved farther west, the popularity of the springs began a precipitous decline. The waters specifically influenced the settlement of certain towns. Mineral Wells, Tioga, Sutherland Springs, and Wootan Wells owed their existence to their waters. Economies of other towns, such as Marlin, San Antonio, and Lampasas, partly depended upon the fact that people considered them healthful places to visit. "Taking the waters" was a site-specific activity, but it also included consumption away from the resort. Many waters that are now sold commercially come from Texas springs. Tioga, Wootan Wells, and Marlin bottled their mineral waters. In 1910 Mineral Wells was the largest shipping point for mineral water in the South, with yearly shipments of more than three million bottles to cities in the South and Midwest. In 1914 fifteen companies bottled Texas mineral water. One company still bottled the water of Mineral Wells in 1990, and some people con

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Mineral Wells, Texas

Music in Mineral Wells

Songs About Mineral Wells

Artists From Mineral Wells

Rivers & Roads in Song near Mineral Wells

History of Mineral Wells

How the Crazy Well Got Its Name RoadyGoat

A Boxcar of Crystals a Day RoadyGoat

Did the Water Really Cure People? RoadyGoat

Mineral Wells - Crazy Water

Mineral Wells, TX

Sam Savage

Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway Depot

Lake Mineral Wells State Park

Mineral-Water Springs and Wells

Things to Do in Mineral Wells

Everything Near Mineral Wells