Zach Harold, West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Berkeley Springs, W. Virginia (AP) — Every few weeks, Lauren Lee packs dozens of gallons of water into a large black laundry bag. She takes it to a covered pavilion in the middle of Berkeley Springs State Park in the middle of downtown Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
She chooses one of the two brick fountains and begins filling each jug with water drawn from seven underground springs.
“I love coming here. I meet new people all the time. No place I’ve ever lived has been able to do this,” Lee said.
She doesn’t just come here to socialize.
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“Where we live we have well water, so it’s a lot easier to use this with machines such as coffee,” Lee said. “And for the plants, because our water kills our plants.”
Water is free. But of course, just buying water at Kroger or Dollar General isn’t that expensive either. It’s definitely more convenient. No need for empty jugs or laundry bags.
But there’s something about the water Lee draws from these springs that commercial water doesn’t.
“I feel like this is part of the healing and just the nutrients I’m getting from the earth,” she said.
For centuries people have come to Berkeley Springs for healing. Apparently it was the natives who introduced Europeans to its medicinal properties.The springs had already become a popular destination for him by the mid-18th century, so a young surveyor named George Washington visited the area. I always stopped by on occasion.
Washington returned several times, once to cure rheumatic fever and then with his wife, Martha, and daughter, Patsy, hoping to treat a little girl’s seizures.
In 1776, while Washington was probably busy with other matters, the Virginia legislature founded a town around the spring. They called it “Bath” after a spa town in England. That was the beginning of the town’s development, and some of the buildings from that time still stand.
It has a two-story Roman Baths built in the 1780s. For a small fee, you can soak in a 750-gallon spring-filled tub for 30 minutes. The Gentleman’s Fountain with drinking fountain came in his 1800s. The same was true for the women’s bath, now known as the public bath.
Sento also sells empty gallon jugs for those who want to take water home – subject to availability.
If you don’t have an empty jug, you can pick it up at the public bath.
“We sold 15 per person on Saturday,” said Leslie Smith, who runs the spa’s front desk. “People swear by that water. They bathe in it. They wash their hair in it. They cook in it. ) Filling up a 5 gallon jug. Like 50 of them.
When we visited, we didn’t encounter anyone from China inside Appalachia, but we did find someone from Lebanon.
“My friend told me about it a long time ago,” said Fadi Talj. I was able to get in.”
Originally from Lebanon, Talj lived in Frederick, Maryland before moving near Berkeley Springs and its waters.
“There aren’t many places like this around, so if you find one nearby, take advantage of it,” he said.
Dorothy Vesper, a geology professor at West Virginia University, is also a fan of Berkeley Springs water.
“I fill my water bottle every time I walk by,” she said on a Zoom call. “It’s a good one.”
However, Vesper is not marketed with health claims. Some of her graduate students are studying the waters of Berkeley Springs. They found minerals present: magnesium, potassium, sodium, calcium, and other members of the periodic table.
“You need to drink a lot to get enough of the nutritional benefits,” she said.
This study yielded some good news. Not all natural hot springs are created equal. Some are not safe to drink. Some are polluted by their surroundings, others are freshly discharged from old abandoned coal mines.
Berkeley Springs, on the other hand, is pristine.
“There is no metallicity (taste). It’s very soft spring water. I just think it’s delicious,” said Vesper. “I have no concerns. I will drink it right from the spring.”
But taste aside, Vesper didn’t say spring water is any better for you than water from your tap at home.
So what about those who feel that this water has helped them? What about those who believe they have been healed by it? Is this all placebo effect?
Vesper reveals that she is not a doctor, but has a theory.
“Personally, if they let me hang out in the hot springs for two weeks, I would feel better,” she said.
Maybe there is something to it.
Surrounded by spring-fed ponds and cherry blossoms, the park has a sense of tranquility. The benefits that Lee and Talji attribute to water may actually come from the ritual of returning each week to draw water from the earth, as our ancestors have done for centuries. not.
If healing isn’t in magnesium, it might be in the memories mixed in there.
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