DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Out here in Wood County, water once made a town famous. The springs near this site were first known as Musgrove Springs, sitting on land owned by an early settler named L.
M. Musgrove. That was the humble beginning.
But the water had secrets in it — high iron content, mineral-rich and strong — and eventually those springs got a new name to match: Chalybeate Springs. And that name brought people. Not just a few folks passing through, mind you — a whole resort community rose up around those waters.
William and Susan Bolding gave land for a school, built in 1881. Churches came. Stores came.
A post office came. For a stretch, Chalybeate Springs was the kind of place people made a point of traveling to. Then along came Walker Fore in the 1880s, and he looked at those springs and saw something grand.
He bought the property and built himself a two-story hotel and spa right there on the site. Two stories. A full spa.
In Wood County. The man was not thinking small. But resorts are fickle things.
By 1895 the hotel had closed its doors. The building stood quiet for decades before it was finally razed in 1935. The community that had grown up around those iron-rich waters began to thin out, and by the 1950s even the school had closed.
What the water gave, time slowly took back. The springs are still near this site — but the hotel, the spa, the thriving little village that once surrounded them are gone. All that's left is the name, and this marker, and the story of how much faith people once put in what was coming up out of the ground.
What the marker says
Located on land owned by early settler L. M. Musgrove, the springs near this site first were known as Musgrove Springs. Later called Chalybeate Springs for the high iron content in the water, they gave rise to a thriving resort community. A school was built on land given by William and Susan Bolding in 1881, and the village included churches, stores, and a post office. Walker Fore bought the springs property in the 1880s and built a two-story hotel and spa. The hotel closed in 1895, and the building was razed in 1935. The community declined, and the school closed in the 1950s. (1990)