Marker recognizes mineral springs

Legend holds that Native Americans drank from the springs long before Europeans arrived

QUAKER SPRINGS, N.Y. » The town of Saratoga recently unveiled its first Legends & Lore historical marker, calling attention to the mineral springs in the hamlet of Quaker Springs as part of an effort to promote local cultural tourism.

The sign commemorates the legend that Native Americans drank from the mineral springs long before Europeans arrived. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation, based in Syracuse, provided $1,050 to erect the marker through a partnership with the New York Folklore Society to share state folklore.

“The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has done the town a great service by providing the marker to recognize the Quaker Mineral Springs in the town of Saratoga,” according to Saratoga town Supervisor Thomas N. Wood. “The town of Saratoga has worked hard over the past couple of years to improve the Mineral Springs at Quaker Springs. We have had our highway department improve the driveway and spring shelter. The town also has improved the site with regular grass mowing and other improvements.”

The springs lie in a picturesque wooded spot at the foot of three hills sloping from the north, south and west, in present-day Quaker Springs, a hamlet named for early Quaker settlers. Down the western slope flows a brook that collects water from the springs and runs off to the east.

One of the phenomena of the springs is that the one covered by a small building contains lime, magnesia and iron held in solution by carbonic acid and a large proportion of common salt and soda, while just 25 feet away, a second spring, close to the brook and protected by white tile, bubbles up a sulphur-flavored water and a third one, near the top of the hill to the west and now extinct, was known years ago as the Potash Spring.

Because of their proximity to the Hudson River, these springs were known by French and English voyagers long before the Springs of Saratoga or Ballston. It is believed Indians used the springs for medicine water.

PHOTO PROVIDED A new historical marker in the town of Saratoga rec ognizes mineral springs in present-day Quaker Springs that Native Americans used before European settlers arrived. {ictured from left are springs bottle collector Timothy Lagoe, Paul Griffen, whose...