Mineral Spa

Mineral Spas were naturally occurring mineral spring locales which grew a reputation in the nineteenth century on into the late middle-twentith century for healing or healthful benefits to those wealthy enough to partake of their waters. This was called a Mineral cure and gave let to the phrase 'taking a cure', still used as a euphemism, normally though today for one trying to kick a drug dependency.

In many cases, they were located in mountainous locales that gave an additional excuse to leave the drudgery of a hot house in warm weather during summer's onset and were seasonally populated by the well-to-do. They eventually became early vacation spots with the counter-victorian work ethic 'rationale' of health as an excuse to have fun and mix with one's peers in recreation.

Subsequently, many such became the seed stock for today's modern vacation resorts. Alpine locales such as Steamboat Springs, Vale, St Moritz, Mineral Wells first became popular for the questionable health benefits of mineral or soda-water soaks, ingestion, and clean outs during the hey-day of patent medicines and backward medical knowledge. United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Polio survivor, regularly visited Warm Springs and other Hot Springs for restorative soaks. While his cousin Theodore Roosevelt became known as a manly-man of incredible endurance, he was a sickly child suffering from athsma and 'took cures' periodically in an attempt to gain better health.