Old Time Resorts and Health Spas of Monroe County, West Virginia

Salt Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

When William Shanks received a grant of 595 acres of land on Indian Creek in 1787, it most likely never occurred to him that one day his land would become this site of a noted Southern resort. One spring - Sweet Sulphur Spring was discovered about 1803 and Salt Sulphur was discovered in 1805. For many years the mineral waters were used only by a few people, but around 1820, the beginnings of a whole resort was begun.

Ervin Benson bought the land in 1797 and two early guests, Issac Caruthers and William Erskine, ended up marrying Benson's daughters. The two brothers-in-law took over the operation of the new resort and in the coming decades built it into one of the most popular of its time, along with Red, White, Sweet and Hot Springs.

They operated a store at the springs (which is located on highway 219, about three miles south of Union, West Virginia) and built cabins and a frame hotel. The large stone hotel was built between 1820-25 and was restored as a private dwelling home in the 1960s, along with some of the brick cottages.

People from all over the South began coming to the spa for both social and health reasons. It was especially popular with South Carolians, and they even had a row of cottages named "Nullification Row".

Because of the popularity of Salt Sulphur Springs, the two brothers-in-law decided to expand. They build an elegant hotel on a ridge above the valley and called it Erskine House. It was 206 by 45 feet and contained 72 rooms. Salt Sulphur Springs lies in a rather shallow ravine with Indian Creek cutting through it. Besides Sweet and Salt Springs, a third existed there called Iodine Spring and all three were used to the benefit of visitors as a remedy for "chronic diseases of the brain" such as "headaches, incipient mania and local palsy dependent upon congestion or chronic inflammation." There were also cures for neuralgia and other ailments of the day.

During the Civil War the resort was used as a rest area and headquarters by both Northern and Southern armies. Little damage was done to the resort during the War, but little maintenance was done either. William Erskine had died in 1863, and his wife ran the place as best she could under wartime conditions.

After the war, the resort remained closed. Adam King of Washington, D.C. bought it in 1867, but there is no record of it being operated again until 1882. There were camp meetings held there in the 1870s. In 1882 Col. J.W.M. Appleton became manager and the resort was upgraded and regained some of its past glory.

By the turn of this century, things had begun to deteriorate. After Appleton died in 1913, the springs closed. The property was sold at public auction in 1918 and in 1922 it was again sold to P.E. Holz of Charleston, West Virginia. Holz made improvements and reopened the spa, but the business failed to make a comeback. Social conditions were much different during the Great Depression years, and in 1936, the resort closed for the final time.

Mrs. Ward Wylie and her late husband bought the old resort in the 1960s, and turned the stone hotel into a private residence. At that time they also restored two stone spring houses and two brick two-story cottages on the property. Unfortunately, the Erskine House started deteriorating rapidly in the 1940s, and little is left.

At one time there were many mineral water springs operating as thriving resorts in Virginia and West Virginia, but today only a few remain. The popularity of spas seems to have peaked in the mid-1800s, with a brief surge again in the 1880s.

In Edward Pollard's book, "The Virginia Tourist," written in 1870, he called the area of springs in these two states, "America's Sanitarium." The majority of the mineral spring spas were located in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountain chains. There is much limestone and sandstone in this area, contributing to the minerals in the water.

Spas ran the full range from absolutely elegant to rustic. Their prices ran the full range as well. Some like the Homestead attracted European royalty, while people with less pedigree (and money) probably chose the lesser known spas. The major resorts had gourmet dining, but at some of the small resorts, guests had to bring their own bedding and food.

The major attraction of spas in the early days was that the waters held the promise of a cure to both minor and major ailments, in a day and time when medical science could offer little hope. Patients came and drank, bathed and rubbed the water on their bodies, and the resorts prospered. Little is really known of the curative powers of the water itself, but the climate of the mountains helped all by itself. The altitude was high, the air was cool and the air was pure. Many of the people came from places like Charleston, South Carolina and New Orleans, Louisiana, which were both muggy hot in the summer and infested with disease carrying mosquitoes. Two major diseases in those days were Yellow Fever and Cholera. Thus, when people from hot, low-lying coastal areas spent the summer in the mountains, they were physically removed from the diseases at home.

If a person did not need a cure, there was the social side of the coin. Spas were the "in-places" of their day and gathering places for the socially elite. Spas often had race courses, ballrooms for dances, billiards tables, ten-pen alleys and many other acceptable social offerings of the day. Much more time was probably spent eating huge meals, drinking juleps, dancing and such, than were ever spent in the medicinal waters. The development of the railroad also played a large part in the rise of popularity in spas in the mountains, because people could travel to them conveniently.

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