Steam Baths and Spring Waters

Did you know that the Indians invented the steam house? They were built principally near mineral springs where they believed the hot vapors of the minerals cured their aches and pains. After a period of absorbing the moist heat, they would then immerse themselves in snow or in a nearby cold stream.

They would select a level area, dig a hole in the ground about two feet deep and at least three feet in diameter. Sand and gravel were added to the bottom and sides. A fire was then built in the pit. After the wood was burned to hot coals, large stones were rolled on the fire and allowed to heat. They then erected a tent by placing long and slender poles in the ground. The tips were fastened on top, thus making it an oval shape. Animal hides were placed on top of the poles making a tent. A small entrance was covered with a loose hide that acted as a doorway.

When this was completed the individual entered and seated himself before the hot stones. By means of pottery and hides sewed together to form a bucket, they would carry quantities of mineral water to the tent and pour the contents on the hot rocks. It may have been impossible for several persons to enter the tent at the same time.

Chanting songs, which they believed were appeals to the Great Spirit to cure them and endure the hot moisture of the stream. Tribes would spend days at such a mineral spring and they traveled long distances to take this cure.

Places such as this existed here in Bedford County. There are numerous sulfur, white and black, springs as well as springs containing many various minerals.

The genial hosts of the White Sulfur Springs Hotel have stated many times that they once had an old letter in which the writer described that the various pits around or near the Hotel were the places where the various tribes came for their steam baths.

We believe this same thing happened in and around other springs in the County. Various publications on the history of the American Indian Medicine referred many times to the methods the tribes of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York areas used in taking these steam baths to cure their many ailments.

Not only did the red man know of the curative waters here, but others, white and black, knew about them. We have copied, with written permission a most unusual story from (page 15) American Indian Medicine, by Virgil J. Vogel, (copyright 1970 by the University of Oklahoma).

"Fortescue Cuming, in his 'Tour of the West 1807 - 1809, described the alleged incident at a spring near Bedford, Pennsylvania". It is perhaps worth the while for the sake of a curious and important fact to mention the extraordinary effects of the water on a gentleman who had visited this Spring in the Summer of 1809, and who before he left it, discharged from his bowels a living monster, described by some who saw it, as a lizard, by others as a crab with legs, claws etc., and of considerable size. The unhappy man had been ill for several years, without being able to get any relief by the aid of skillful physicians. Immediately after this, he began to recover, and is now in a fair way of regaining his health".

We also found a second unusual story about the famous springs written in London by an anonymous writer in the 'Mega' in 1817:

"A remedy for the stone is stated to have been discovered by the following circumstance. A physician, who for twenty years had been afflicted with this painful disorder, repaired two years ago to the Medical springs at Bedford, Pennsylvania, to make use of the waters After taking them some time to no purpose an African Negro offered to cure him for a few pounds. This offer he treated with contempt, till at length finding that he could not long survive without relief, he sent for the Negro, who disclosed the secret as the price of his freedom, and the patient was cured in four weeks. A quarter of a pint of the expressed juice of a horse-mint, and a quarter of a pint of red onion juice, are to be taken evening and morning till the cure is perfected."

"White onions will not have the same affect as the red. To obtain the juice, cut them in thin slices, salt and bruise them between pewter plates. The horsemint, however, possesses the chief virtue, and a strong decoction of that alone will in general affect a cure, but the dose must be of course considered larger."

We have quoted the above as we found it in order to show that our Springs were known internationally for the past one-hundred and sixty years. But, don't forget, the aborigines used these springs hundreds, yes, perhaps thousands of years before the white man came to these shores.