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MONDAY December 8, 2003 - Subscribe - Contact Us Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels December 1, 2003 A delicate dive in the pools of Twin Plunges, which closed in 1976. People of every era have sampled the city's water and its...Magic Minerals By Lance Pugh For the Tidings I was sitting on the Plaza, near the Lithia Water Fountain, having just downed about a pint of the liquid. Though the air was nippy, I was warmly dressed and, with no forewarning, fell dead asleep in a twinkle of an eye. I proceeded to dream complicated, convoluted schemes of various historical accounts about Ashland, focusing on those who were brave enough to embrace large visions about the many things that this small town could become. I dreamt that I was securely tied and blindfolded in a warm, odiferous cavern. I struggled endlessly, to break my bonds and rise up to the light, but my efforts were futile. Where once I ran freely, I was now imprisoned and captive, no longer able to help the wounded and the sick. I was the capped warm sulphur water, valved shut beneath a building, ironically, devoted to health and rejuvenation. Yep, another vivid dream, yet with such vibrancy and clarity that I quickly slipped from torpor to tenacious as I began my search for the basis of my dream. It all began before man marked time. For many thousands of years the area in and around Ashland was a place of healing for the Klamath, Shastas, Paiutes, Takelmas and other Native Americans, a warm watered oasis to rest and restore ones' energy, where inter-tribal conflict was not allowed. Buckhorn Springs, Jackson Hot Springs, Lithia Springs, Wagner Soda Springs and many more spilled forth with warm mineral laden waters that soothed tired bodies and manifold other measures of relief from the human condition. Ashland's favorite steak and seafood house, Omar's, was built on the site of an ancient sulphur spring. During the excavation of these springs many mastodon bones were discovered. The first commercial use of these waters came during the 1870s and 1880s, when sulphur water was piped from the location of two springs under what is now the Ashland Community Food Store, across A Street to the former Oak Tank & Steel property, upon which the White Sulphur Springs Hotel was constructed. In the early 1900s Helman's Sulphur Baths/Natatorium became an instant hit in a town where bathtubs were few and showers primitive. In 1908 E.C. Gard announced his plans to build the Ashland Mineral Springs Natatorium directly over these two springs. The resultant structure caught the imagination and attendance of many locals, as it featured water slides, diving boards and trapeze rings over the pools. A ballroom with maple floors was built over the holding tanks and doubled as a roller rink to the delight of many. Higher up balconies, which could seat 500, commanded a view of the whole, all under an arched roof that allowed year-round swimming. This later becomes the site of the Twin Plunges, which finally closed in 1976, after Al Wilstatter's offer that the city run the facility was refused. This was an unnecessary loss to Ashland, but some top city officials had little appreciation of our unique history. Accordingly, the pools were emptied, filled in with dirt and the whole facility bulldozed into oblivion. Bert Greer came to Ashland in 1911 and promptly bought the Ashland Tidings, wherein he editorialized that the soda, sulphur and Lithia (second highest concentration of lithium found in the world, behind Carlsbad, Germany) waters found out East of the Ashland airport could turn Ashland into another Saratoga Springs, New York, a destination spa where all manner of water cures could be effected. The citizens of Ashland liked the concept and were soon frothing the chant: "Ashland Grows while Lithia Flows." A Mineral Springs bond passed in 1914 amid large plans to pipe the waters into the City and expand an incipient Lithia Park, designed by John McLaren of Golden Gate Park fame. By 1915 all three flavors of mineral waters had been piped into town in hollow redwood wrapped in wire, this later replaced by a single 2-inch iron pipe, which, for financial reasons, only carried the most popular: Lithia Water. The lines first went to the Railroad Station, then to the Ashland Hotel (now the location of Wells Fargo Bank), then up to Lithia Park next to the band shell and finally a sulphur pipe went across the creek and up the embankment to Satan's Sulphur Grotto which was dug 40 feet into the hill, high atop a staired entrance seemingly ritualistic in steepness, which housed a piped sulphur water stream and blue lights�quite a stretch, even back then. On the Forth of July, 1915, 30,000 people partied for three days to celebrate the dedication of Lithia Park and its waters and, hold on to your tail pipe, an auto campground. The event was presided over by King Sulphur and Queen Lithia. Lithia water was used as a mix for hard liquor and the town went wild. It was presumed that the Lithium would ward off the blues of a hangover, while strengthening all major organs. Prohibition soon took care of that spirited use of the water and the marketing department dug deeper. In 1928 the Lithia Water made it to the Plaza, then a year later to the Library. When we entered WWI, any thoughts of self-indulgence and pampering were eschewed and all of Ashland turned toward the war effort. The excitement for Ashland as a modern water cure sanatorium faded instantly. In 1928 the Coastal Passenger Service shifted from Ashland and was re-routed through Klamath Falls. With the loss of this major passenger transport, Ashland slipped into the Great Depression without much hope for the best-known cure of depression itself � Lithium. Thus again I found myself seated by the Lithia Water fountain, wondering how we had let the secret of Lithium dissolve into all the wrinkled noses and pained faces that I observed as visitors tasted our panacea on the Plaza. What might we do that would promote the wondrous healing powers of Lithium, bringing back the fervor to the uniqueness of Ashland's curative offerings? Ashland Daily Tidings: Nov. 16, 1903 Derelict City Fathers An adjourned meeting of the City Council had been called for last Friday night by Mayor Provost to hear the report and recommendations of the committee appointed by the Board of Trade in reference to the issuance of sewer bonds. The committee had faithfully performed its work and after the expenditure of a day and a half's time, appeared at the Council chamber with a carefully written report. Not a member of the Council put in an appearance, with the result that urgent public business has been again delayed. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Road Cams