| --Home Saratoga Heritage |  |
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| The Heritage of Saratoga | ||||
To understand and appreciate
the importance of Saratoga Springs in the Victorian era, the reader
must look back at its history. In barely a hundred years, what had
once been wilderness had become one of the liveliest and best-known
resorts in America-a remarkable at for a small and somewhat isolated
place to achieve. Saratoga Springs of 1875 was certainly not the
Saratoga of 1775, but neither was it the Saratoga of 1830 or 1860
for that matter. Victorian Saratoga was a unique historical product
of community and environment
Legend and local lore account nearly as much as fact for the early days of Saratoga, since precious few records exist. The recorded history of Saratoga Springs begins with the discovery of High Rock Spring in the second half of the 18th century. Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs in North America for the British Crown, is popularly regarded as the first white visitor, brought here by the Iroquois in 1771. The Iroquois had long admired and respected Johnson, and when he fell ill that year, they carried him through the wilderness to a curious mineral deposit and spring. Johnson drank their cherished medicine and bathed in the cool soothing liquid. |
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The Saratoga region, and High Rock Spring in particular, had been well known to native people for untold generations before. They were drawn by the healing water of the "medicine spring of the Great Spirit”, as the Iroquois called the High Rock, and the abundant game found in the wilderness. In the years after the American Revolution, word spread quickly across the country praising the region's mineral water, abundant timber and other natural resources. |
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| Small huts and shelters,
and then cabins, were built by the earliest Pioneers. Crude bath facilities
were created to allow eager visitors the opportunity to benefit from
nature's medicine flowing from the mineral cone and from a few other
sources soon discovered nearby. Among the early visitors was General
Philip Schuyler, who, carved a path through the wilderness along Fish
Creek from Schuylerville (then called Saratoga). High Rock was thereby
connected to the Hudson River and to Schuyler's country home and mills
at the old Revolutionary War battle site. The trail Schuyler blazed
in 1783 became the first route providing "convenient" access
to the springs, though travelers would still worry about bears, wolves
and the great cats which roamed the swamps and dense forest along
the way. General George Washington visited High Rock Spring while inspecting military sites in the northeast. Accompanied by New York Governor George Clinton and Alexander Hamilton on the 1783 visit, Washington was impressed with the spring and even inquired about purchasing property in the area. He was unable to secure any, however, and later generations would look back and always wonder what would have become of Saratoga, indeed the country, if the General had been able to purchase land here. While the land around High Rock Spring was the focus of the earliest development, an important new chapter in Saratoga's history began in the summer of 1792. Historical accounts tell of a small group setting out that summer to hunt game in the deep woods south of the mineral cone when one of their members, Nicholas Gilman, a congressman from New Hampshire, spotted clear water bubbling up from the ground. Word of a new mineral spring spread quickly, and it became known as Congress Spring in honor of its discoverer. The water was proclaimed superior to the other known sources and early travelers began to seek it out. Saratoga had a new "lure.” The fortunes of Saratoga Springs took a significant turn when Clarke arrived on the scene at Congress Spring in1823. A New York City soda fountain owner, Clarke recognized tremendous potential in the mineral water business. Though the water was given away freely at the spring's source, Clarke believed a good income could be derived from the sale of bottled water. Clarke was joined by Thomas Lynch, an associate from New York City, and together they began to market bottled Congress Water. Under the banner of Lynch and Clarke, they set about promoting the water throughout the country.
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