The Boiling Springs Boiling Spring

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

This is the Boiling Springs' Boiling Spring. The town of Boiling Springs was named after this spring when it was established by a group of three families around 1843. The spring was a natural attraction for settlers exploring the backcountry of North Carolina for meeting and drinking.

Images

The boiling spring emits water from the background and it trickles towards the perspective into a small stream.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

This spring once sprang out of the ground up to 24 inches, probably due to water pressure and geothermal processes. Today, however, it trickles into a small stream which feeds the artificially-created Lake Hollifield on Gardner-Webb University's campus. There are two conflicting stories that explain why the boiling spring no longer boils or shoots up.

One theory is that shortly after the town incorporated in 1911, attempts to expand the town's water system tapped into the aquifer that fed the boiling spring, diverting some of the water into the town's new water utilities and decreasing the pressure on the spring's opening.

Another theory is that in the 1940s, leaders in Boiling Springs sought a way to make the spring more impressive to increase tourism and settlement. The then Boiling Springs High School Chemistry teacher purportedly knew that expanding the mouth of the springs would increase the height and volume of the springs, so he detonated dynamite around the spring. By making the opening wider, he instead decreased the pressure and turned the small geyser into a babbling pool.

Now it partially feeds Lake Hollifield, slightly warmer than the water it feeds into. It is surrounded by memorial benches and is a place to sit and reflect. The "boiling spring" should not be confused with the artificial and periodically colorful geyser in the center of Lake Hollifield.

Sources

Town History. Boiling Springs NC. Accessed April 28, 2017. http://www.boilingspringsnc.net/index.asp?SEC=1E6A0C23-A768-479F-B90A-72E5C39BD68F&Type=B_BASIC.

Water & Sewer Utility Services. Boiling Springs NC. Accessed April 28, 2017. http://www.boilingspringsnc.net/index.asp?SEC=5AA2AF1C-2873-4633-958E-B7E7F6C6DD8D&Type=B_BASIC.

Powell, Lew. In Boiling Springs, a ka-boom! goes bust. North Carolina Miscellany. November 19, 2011. Accessed April 28, 2017. http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/ncm/index.php/2011/11/19/16196/.