Sulphur's springs have offered healing waters for centuries

The springs in Sulphur, like those in Hot Springs, Arkansas, are most identified with an era when people traveled long distances for hydrotherapy, hoping to cure a range of ailments.

The springs in Sulphur, part of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, and Hot Springs National Park are overseen by the National Park Service and were among the earliest additions to the park system.

The National Park Service informs visitors the springs are very different, with the water in Sulphur coming out cold at a temperature of about 65 degrees and the water at Hot Springs coming out hot at 147 degrees.

“Taking the cure” at mineral spring resorts became highly fashionable in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries, when thousands visited such famous spas as Bath, Aix-les-Bains, Aachen, Baden-Baden, and Karlsbad,” the park service explains on its website. “As mineral springs were found in America, they too attracted attention.”

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Hot Springs composed of 47 springs emerging from a fault at the base of a mountain. In 1832, Congress reserved four sections of land containing Hot Springs “for the future disposal of the United States.” After the Civil War, the Interior Department permitted private entrepreneurs to build and operate bathhouses to which the spring waters were piped, and the Hot Springs Reservation became a popular resort.

In 1902, the Federal Government purchased 33 mineral springs near Sulphur from the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations to create the Sulphur Springs Reservation, also under Interior’s jurisdiction. The reservation was enlarged in 1904, and two years later Congress renamed it Platt National Park after the recently deceased Sen. Orville Platt, of Connecticut, who had been active in Indian affairs.

In 1921, the state of Oklahoma constructed a tuberculosis sanatorium for veterans immediately south of what is now the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. A trail connects the Veterans Center to Pavilion Springs.

The main focus was not bathing in the water, but drinking it. The water was reputed to be a cure-all for a variety of ailments, including infection, asthma, indigestion, nausea, nervousness, arthritis, weakness, lameness, and many more. It was also reputed to act as insect repellent, guarding against mosquitos, chiggers and ticks.

'A town of bottles.' Some 200,000 visited Sulphur in the early '20s

The reputation of Sulphur’s waters with tourists prompted The Oklahoman to declare “Sulphur is a town of bottles” in a Jan. 15, 1922, article:

"It is a safe wager that the bottle population is greater here than any other town or city in the state. And they are not the "hip-pocket" variety either.

Bottles range in size from half gallon to five gallons and are used for carrying water from the various springs of mineral water that bubble from the ground and hillsides over town.

Merchants carry these bottles in their stock and trade, and are zealous about keeping a good supply on hand as they are to keep sugar and coffee.

About the first thing a tourist does when he arrives in town, after he has found a place to sleep, is to buy a water bottle and join the procession to and from Bromide Springs, or whatever spring is best suited to his particular taste or ailment.

There were over 200,000 visitors in Sulphur last season, and most of them had a water bottle.

Yes, Sulphur has some bottle population."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Sulphur's springs have offered healing waters for centuries