From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 312:
TWO MINERAL WATER BOOMS IN BELLOWS FALLS
Bellows Falls has had two distinct booms in its history, based upon the production or mineral spring water. One did not last long and had a laughable endding, while the other covered several years, and both were noted incidents of this locality. When "Robertson's Tavern" was built in 1817 upon the present site or hotel Windham, the supply or water was secured from a well behind the house, between where the raillroad now is and the canal. This water was good for cooking purposes but so hard that the different proprietors of the hotel had to use a "wash house" on the banks of the canal, using river water for their laundry work.
A few years after the well was dug a peculiar taste became apparent in the water. At about that time a great interest, which in some places amounted to exciteement, had been engendered by the discovery of important and valuable medicinal springs in different parts or the country. The most important of these at Sara toga were being developed, and the medicinal qualities or the Abenauqui springs, located two miles south or Bellows Falls in the town of Walpole, which became so popular a few years later, were being disscussed. The curious taste and smell of the water which came from the Roberston Tavern well were at once attributed to the same popular cause, and Mr. Robertson became convinced that he had a second Saratoga, with an equal bonanza for his pocket book. The fame grew for many weeks, the qualities of the well water [313] becoming more and more pronounced. People came from long distances with jugs and all kinds of receptacles to get the water, for which a fee was at last charged. It was soon reported to have made some marvelous cures of many kinds of diseases. A new and showy house was erected over the well and many people came to the tavern to board and get the advantage of continuous use of the water.
One day it occurred to Mr. Robertson that it would be a good thing to clean out the well and still further improve it. When those who were at work emptying the well came to the bottom they were chagrined to find the decayed bodies of two large house cats which had in some manner fallen into the well. Their presence had caused the offensive taste and odor to which the valuable qualities had been attributed. After the cleaning was completed there was no further indication of "mediciinal" qualities, but the water was of an unusually pure and sweet taste. Mr. Robertson was ever after sensitive at being rallied upon his "medicinal" water, but he always claimed that he "had the advantage of having enjoyed fame, even if it was of short duration."
A few years later as a part of the tourist business, and to increase the popularity of the Island House, then a noted hotel, arrangement were made for the development of a real mineral spring two miles from the hotel a half mile below the mouth of Cold river, known as the Abenauqui Mineral Spring, which attained much popularity . It can still be found east of the Wells farmhouse, just south of the meadow in which stood the cabin of John Kilburn, the first white settler of Walpole.
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In 1851 large sums of money were spent in developing it, including a large reservoir with a dancing pavilion over it, and pipes leading from it to a large granite fountain for drinking, from which the bottled waters were sold for a number of years. Bath houses and shower baths were expensively fitted up, public teams were run once in two hours between the Island House, this spring, and less frequently to the Mountain House, then located on Table Rock on Mount Kilburn, from which such a beautiful view can still be had of a large stretch of the Connecticut valley. Portions of the large granite storage tank, and other relics of the heyday of its popularity, can still be seen strewn around in the vicinity.