Compromise leads to Powder Springs’ name

Where d id Powder Springs get its name?

Powder Springs, about 10 miles southwest of Marietta in Cobb County, got its name in 1859 from the major seven springs located in the city.

The water in those springs contained about 26 elements, including arsenic, as listed at the Seven Springs Museum in Powder Springs.

Those minerals turned the surrounding sand black, like gun powder, according to Julia E. Kilgore, an assistant at the museum at the Bodiford House in down- town Powder Springs.

“The ( Cherokee a nd Creek) indians who lived here wanted to call the city Gunpowder Springs and the early settlers wanted to call it Springville, so there was a toss up,” said Kilgore, who has worked at the city museum 20 years. “They settled on Powder Springs.”

The city was incorporated as Springville in 1838, but changed its name to Powder Springs 21 years later.

“Prospectors had found gold in the state 10 years earlier, and so get-richquick hopefuls flocked to Springville to mine and pan more. Despite their efforts, the prospectors found little in the mines at Lost Mountain and off Brownsville Road,” according to the state.

The first settlers came to this area looking for gold, but found little in the mines at Lost Mountain and off Brownsville Road. However, the minerals in the springs were believed to contain healing powers.

“With that Springville became known as a bus- tling health resort,” according to Purelypowdersprings. com. “The only way to get the full effect of this natu- ral med was to stay here for extended amount of time and drink it.”

At the same time, the U.S. government had forced the Cherokee Indians off their lands and marched them to Oklahoma on the “Trail of Tears,” according to to Georgia.gov.

Most of the springs are on private property and not big.

One located on public property at Powder Springs Park off Brownsville Road was capped, Kilgore said. This spring was the most popular and for many years the city’s only supply of public water.