"Here amidst the mazy forest ,or rugged landscape, they steal the roses of youth from the zephyrs of the mountains and valleys, and purify their feelings, whilst they lave their bodies in the translucid streams, sparkling with the richest gems of Hygeia." Pittsburgh Gazette, 6/28/1811, referring to Bedford Springs.

 

Long before the first Europeans arrived in what would become Bedford County in south central Pennsylvania, the curative powers of the nearby waters were known to many Native American tribes of the East Coast, including the Tuscarora, Iroquois and Shawnee. Their legends describe a "medicine spring" as shaded by majestic oak, giant pine and graceful maple. It was their gatherings by the spring that captured the attention of European settlers and resulted in the discovery of seven mineral springs that was to affect the future of the area.

 

By the late 1700's mineral springs from New England to Virginia had appeared as health retreats and social places for the wealthy. Bedford Springs, nestled in a narrow valley between two mountain ridges, was Pennsylvania’s grandest mineral springs resort. It mountainous setting, temperate climate, seven chemically different mineral springs, grand buildings and proximity to the nation’s capital gave the resort an enduring reputation as an important gathering place.

 

"Very valuable mineral springs have lately been discovered in the vicinity of Bedford, Pennsylvania, which, from the extraordinary cures they have effected during the last summer, are beginning to excite very general attention," wrote the Pittsburgh Gazette, Dec. 30, 1803.

 

Local landowner Dr. John Anderson (whose family retained control of the property until the 1880's) began developing his approximately 1600 acres of mountain and valley land as a resort in the early 1800's. Bedford Mineral Springs quickly established its reputation for graceful and comfortable living. An 1809 travel account praised the watering spot’s beautiful setting, medicinal springs, three large and handsome lodging buildings, warm and cold baths and billiard room. At that time Bedford Mineral Springs could accommodate 300 guests.

 

In 1811 Bedford Springs boasted a large underground reservoir, two cold and two warm commodious baths, a large boarding house and two small detached buildings for lodging rooms. By the early 1830's all lodging buildings had external galleries. A drawing room with a piano and a dining room had been established . A decade later, the Greek Revival-style Colonial Building had been completed. The brick building measured 162 feet in length, and 54 feet in width, with a front portico extending the length of the building. The dining room 27 feet wide, and extending the entire length of the building, was said to be the largest in the US.

 

By the mid 1870's, Bedford Springs’ reputation had been cemented. The "Carlsbad of America" (as it had been frequently called) "became the center of a brilliant social life....a showplace...for gracious living among the wealthy and socially prominent people," wrote Calvin W. Hentrick in "The Iron King." In addition to the Springs’ medicinal properties that drew people to its doors, the resort offered sumptuous meals, fashionable galas, card playing, lawn games, billiards, bowling, dancing, promenades on the galleries and meanderings throughout the resort’s hillsides, forests and meadows.

 

"There is perhaps no other place in the United States where nature in her grandeur and sublimity is so closely connected with the embellishments of art...This is a palace in the wilderness," writes the National Register of Historic Places citing a travel account description of the Springs.

 

In the 1920's, with the appointment of Dr. William E. Fitch as medical director, the Springs’ waters again became the primary focal point Fitch, author and editor of the treatise "Mineral Water of the US and American Spas" (1927), was one of a small group of physicians spearheading an effort to place water therapy, including mineral baths and ingestion of mineral waters, on sound scientific footing, calling for a redesign of American spas as health sanitaria along European lines.

 

Fitch attempted the latter at Bedford Springs by establishing his "Bedford Cure", a three- week, physician-supervised treatment program of mineral waters and baths, regulated diet and supervised exercise. The Depression of the 1930's limited the number of people who could afford a three-week stay at the Hotel, and the lure of the waters for medicinal reasons diminished.

 

Following World War II, the hotel again became a desired vacation destination for its magnificent setting and grandiose style until it closed to the public in the late 1980's.

 

Today, the spring waters, many easily accessible, still flow on the property of the vacant and silent National Historic Landmark.