Spring House, view of woman standing with bucket outside a small cabin in the woods.
Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
During my visits with Granny Hicks (Rachel Virginia Gibby Hicks) she’s mentioned the wonder of natural springs more than once.
Our area of Appalachia has a multitude of springs. It is a water rich place to say the least. I could walk to at least four or five different springs, if not more, within 30 minutes of leaving my back porch.
Today folks don’t depend on springs like they did when Granny Hicks was a girl, nor even when I was a girl.
Pap and Granny had gravity water that come from a spring up the creek until I was in 8th grade. It was the best water. Lucky for us, the well Pap had drilled also turned out to be really good water.
Granny Hicks spoke more about the nature of springs than the taste of the water.
Even though it’s been many a year since she depended on a spring for refrigeration she still marvels at the miracle springs offered when she was a girl.
Certainly a place to get good water but also a place to store perishable food in summer and in winter. The natural heat from inside the Earth kept the springs of Granny’s youth unfroze.
She said she’d often seen the creek froze just below where her foodstuffs were sitting in the spring unfrozen but cold.
I’d love to know more about the lady in the photo I shared from WCU’s digital collection. Her spring house looks like a fine large one. And there seems to be blooms in the trees just above it. Since the other trees aren’t leafed out I wonder if the blooms are sarvis blooms. The dainty white flowers appear in early spring.
Visit the Southern Appalachian Collection of Western Carolina University. You won’t be sorry, with over 26,000 items you’ll be thoroughly entertained and if you’re from the area, or your people are from the area, you might just see family show up on your screen.
Last night’s video: Granny’s Black Walnut Cake – It’s So Good!
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One of my summer jobs was keeping the bucket on the back porch railing filled with cold spring water. Spring was about 100 yards away, and always seemed farther to a skinny little kid with a full water bucket.
Tipper,
We have spring water in our house. My parents (my mother helped too) headed the spring and set up a gravity water system years ago. (Yes, I know how to head a spring too). When we built the house we reworked the system, put a pump in the reservoir, and have spring water up on the hill in the cabin. We have salamanders and insects at the top of the reservoir which tells us the water is fresh and pure. The pump is down in the bottom where the coldest freshest water is located. If a spring is headed correctly, it produces pure cold water. Sadly, the art of heading a spring is a lost mountain art.
Most house loans today will not cover a house that is operating on a spring water system.
My grandparents had a spring house that is still in operation today. Grandma had grandpa put a cook stove in the spring house so she could do her canning in the spring house. She did not have to carry water from the spring up the hill to the house she could just dip it from the spring bowl as she prepared her vegetables. When they got electricity into the house after WW II they put water in the house. They still used the spring house to store extra milk and wash the milk buckets.
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Take care and love your posts.
Kathy Patterson
I figure you can get your water horizontally, the way it falls out of the mountain or lift it vertically with a pump. We get ours as it falls right into the house. Only about 15 psi but it works fine for the washing machine and getting showers. A pencil size stream can produce about 1000 gallons a day. More than we need and the excess goes into the trout pond. I have found many springs for people. I call it tickling springs. You allow the water to come forth rather than digging them. Especially not something you do with a machine. You can walk in any direction in these mountains and find a drink pretty quick. I came here for the water.
I love the picture of the spring; it reminds me of older times! I remember a couple of springs on my grandparent’s property. The water tasted so good!
Miss Cindy,
We have spring water. I agree it is the best water there is!
Kathy Patterson
I knew someone that lived at Rocky Bottom, SC , a community between Pickens, SC and Rosman, NC that got their gravity fed water from a creek on Sassafras Mountain, I think Kate mentioned being afraid to drink spring water, if you look on the bottled water so many now drink it comes from natural springs and for some brands municipal water sources. After it is so-called purified it would seem to to lose it’s natural taste or health benefits. I think the experts now claim the plastic bottle has things in it that will cause health problems, according to the exspurts ( I intended to spell it that way) everything we eat or do is bad for our health. How the heck did anyone of my age or older live to be our age when many of the things we did in our lives is now considered to be so unhealthy? What these people don’t tell you is how much it takes before it causes health problems.
Another great post, Miss Tipper! Thank you!
My recollection of a spring being used by the household is from my aunt and uncle’s farm in Rockingham County back in the ’40s. Yes, it had lizards.
Cousin Ed mentioned the constancy of temperature in the Earth exemplified by caves and spring water. Many people heat and cool their homes with systems of watered circulated from coils buried a few feet below the surface using pumps.
Blessings to all.
Springs are indeed special places. I have drunk from many a mountain spring, including Moody Springs that Randy mentioned. I have also been scuba diving in lots of Florida springs, most of which now have state parks around them, like Kate’s. I’ve dived in one great, crystal-clear spring reached by descending through the dark waters of the St. Johns River. (What were we thinking?) The most unusual spring in Florida wells up offshore in the Atlantic between St. Augustine and Jacksonville. I prefer those small drinkin’ springs of my youth, all with a few resident spring lizards. Never once thought about pollution back then, but I did catch a few of those lizards for fish bait.
I don’t think people understand what a mountain spring is. Springs in flatter parts of the country come up from under the ground where the “water table” is near the surface. Water drawn from such a spring is much the same as well water. It is water that has collected on the surface and over the years has filtered down through the soil and added to the water table. This water may contain contaminants it picked up on the surface or on its journey down. Springs like this need to be tested frequently to assure their safety.
Proper mountain springs are different in that they produce water from inside the mountain. Water that began as rain or snowfall that has filtered down through the mountain itself before emerging at the base as, hopefully, pure clean clear spring water. This water is constantly moving, slowly but steadily downward, over many years, through nothing but rock, propelled only by gravity. It might pick up minerals as it passes through which might make it unsafe or unpleasant to use but is far less likely to contain chemical or biological pollutants produced by humans.
A proper mountain spring comes out of the mountainside. All soil and debris should be pulled back and replaced by cement or stone. If water is to be dipped directly from the spring a basin should be created also with cement or stone and a cover put in place. A large flat rock makes the best cover.
Now to explain why spring water does not freeze even when the creek it runs into is frozen over. Spring water is coming directly from inside a mountain. It is at the same temperature of the inside of the mountain. If you have ever been in a cave you might understand better. The temperature inside a cave, like spring water, seems warmer when it is cold and colder when it is hot. Really the temperature of both the air in a cave and water that runs out of a mountain stay more or less the same temperature year around. Linville Caverns stays 52ºF year around. The stream that flows from the caverns is that same temperature year around also. The water from the Caverns is not safe to drink though because of the thousands of nasty tourists who wander in and out of it every year.
Any of our ancestors who happened upon a cave with a spring in it were really blessed. Water and refrigeration in one!
One more thing! One sign of a good spring is the presence of spring lizards. Spring lizards need clean water to live so be suspicious of springs without them. A spring with nothing living in it is likely not safe.
The spring on my grandparent’s farm when I was a young’un was a “Godsend”, indeed. Although aways from the house, it was as you noted, free running 365 days a year and was not only our source of water but also our refrigerator. A welcoming filled spring water bucket and a common dipper always hung in the shade of the front porch. In addition, each morning when my grandfather went down to the spring for water, he took his rifle. Many is the occasion when we had young squirrel for breakfast, Tipper. If it was an old squirrel, it was eaten for dinner. It will be remembered as the best tasting spring in the holler.
Nothing tastes as good as clean water that was filtered by our earth! We had the best water ever at 60′ deep well in North Florida and hated to leave that old farmstead. Now we are closer to town and the water is still pumped from 80′ but doesn’t have the exact sweet taste as the farmstead. I disliked the taste of the ‘filter system’ and worried about the chemicals in it so I bought a Berkey filter for drinking. I had my ‘straight’ water pumped through a filter to remove the pieces of sand, etc. and then I water my garden with it. I also get a pitcher of my ‘special’ water every other day to put through my Berkey for the best tasting water ever. You can put red food coloring into the top and get perfectly clear water out the bottom. I don’t loose the minerals included in water that are necessary for health and hydration. A friend once drank from a stream up in the mountains and came home sick from bacteria in that water. She said it did taste good but was afraid to drink unfiltered water since. It wasn’t a ‘spring’ well but just a stream that who knows what could have been dumped into it. When I was little I loved to ‘chug’ a glass of cold water – seemed so good to have that refreshing drink but I don’t think many people today even know what that is like. Sad that even water has been commercialized.
I am trying to figure out if Granny Hicks is related to me. I married a Gibby and it’s not a very common name.
I do love your videos and your girls. Matt is right up there too. I would take a class from y’all any day.
Jane, I have Ms. Hicks in my family tree and would be glad to help you try to connect to her if you are interested. Maybe Tipper could give you my email address.
My aunt lived across the road from a spring where she kept fresh churned butter and milk. She never worried about someone stealing it even though she lived along a blacktop road that had travelers going to VA and W. VA. Not many vehicles passed the old spring until the local coal miners started getting off work every evening. As her porch full of kids played with katydids and June bugs, I remember hearing my aunt say, hush, I hear a car a comin’.
I cannot hear of mountain springs without memory taking me back to the role springs played in my life in my earlier years. Grandpa had what was probably a hand dug well with a bucket. If the water got low, we would scamper across the Pinnacle Creek to fetch a bucket of water from a mountain spring. I look back and wonder what made me so fortunate that I learned the value of spring water at such a young age. The spring was on a bank surrounded by Mountain Laurels, and the water ran off pooling into a rock and dirt formed a reservoir. The reservoir had probably been formed by centuries of run off from that mountainside. My grandmother kept her fresh milk there, and on the 4th of July it kept several watermelons cold for the huge army of kin folk that converged each year. Most all the men had served their country, and the 4th of July was celebrated in a big way. We could fetch the watermelons and carry them across a bridge that was a log with a flat side. There were other logs at different points on the winding Pinnacle Creek, and we learned to scale them easily even when they were rounded and still slick from the bark. With all the new technology of today, it is hard to fathom that each and every person who ever spent time on my Grandpa’s Pinnacle Creek Homestead loved and missed it forever. Today, the only sounds that may be heard from the Homestead are the noises made by the ATV’s that converge on the Hatfield and McCoy Trail each summer. There are others who can still look back and remember the mountain spring not far from a large rock where many stood to have their photo taken then and occasionally now.
There was a spring in the east end of our county, and you’d see people stopping by the side of the road to fill their water jugs. Several years ago, the county blocked the spring because of concerns of contaminated water.
Wonderful stories of the Spring House. I visited the digital collection from the link you added. I found a digital copy of a hiking club book from Knoxville, TN. My niece lives close to Knoxville and she loves to hike, so I sent her a link to it. The site is very impressive with so many photos to view. Thank you for sharing it with us!
It was a treat to be able to go to the spring house at my grands’ farm. The milk was kept there in warm weather. When we visited, I was the one who was sent to the spring house with an old wagon and two buckets. I would get the bottle of milk and fill the buckets with water. Then I had to slowly pull that wagon back up the hill without spilling it all. That was the highlight of my day because it was a job that usually grownups would do and it made me feel very important, LOL.
when we built our home in 1977 we used our spring and the water was so cold and delicious. we had to drill a well after we had 3 kids and 6 cows!
Debbie,
It is a shame you had to drill a well. Our animals use the spring branch for
water! Recently our area has had earthquakes so the rocks have shifted just enough to
mess up several family members springs in the area where we live. They have had to drill wells or go to different springs. Yes, springs are precious commodities of living in the mountains.
Kathy Patterson
I am at Bryson City every Monday and like many others, get my drinking water from the spring @ Cold Springs Baptist Church..
I grew up going to Cold Springs Baptist church and have had water from the spring.
You mention the “taste” of water. Those with no experience of a well or a spring probably think water either has no taste or tastes like chlorine. “Good” water tastes good. Plain water tastes wet. When I think of the taste of water I think of how David longed for a drink of water from the well at Bethlehem (his hometown) “that is before the gate”. Even though there was a Philistine garrison there at the time, three of his ” mighty men” broke through to draw water for him. But he considered it too precious for his own use and “poured it out to the Lord” as an offering. I probably have posted this before but I love the connection to ancient times and the love of water from home.
I too adore spring water with its natural vitamins, minerals and ultra filtered for purity by God Himself! There was a time not so long ago, I watched the water company go around plugging every one they could find or had track of. No explanation was given when I inquired as to why this was being done. I know of a house right now with a spring in the basement. My cat used to go catch his own crawdads by a spring where I used to live. There’s a place near here that has the best water you ever drank coming from an artesian well 3300 feet deep. When I see their high priced water for sale, I always get it because it’s that good! It’s about 8$ a case. Springs used to keep all the milk and meats and cheese ice cold with ice houses built right into creek. Mommy told me they’d also carry ice and put in there when it was available. There’s been more than once I’ve hidden my soft drinks in the creek when I went for a walk to come back to a cold beverage! Out in Sedona, Arizona, I remember sitting on red smooth rock shelves as warm as toast while water cascaded all around me. It was glorious!
One of my neighbors, an old lady, used a spring for her water until she finally had a well dug around 1980, just a few years before she died. She was never married and had some strange ways about her but was dearly loved by everyone and would often sit and stay with the women in the community if they were sick while their husbands worked. I don’t know the full story, but both of her parents died in 1939, and their bed was never slept in anymore, or her daddy’s T model was never moved from the shed he had parked it under. Her only concession to modern conveniences was a refrigerator, electric cook stove , a single bulb pull string light in each room hung from ceiling by the electric cord and later on a kerosene heater. She slept on 3 cane bottom straight back chairs lined up beside each other and only used two rooms of the house. We all looked out for her and I would go and sometimes bring water to her from her spring. I could tell a lot more about her. There is a spring (Moody Springs) on Hwy 107 between Mt. Rest, SC and the Walhalla Fish Hatchery daddy would always get jugs of water from if it we was up that way. There is a mineral spring at Williamston, SC that people come to from all around to get water for health purposes. A town park was built around this spring. The town has had to put a fence around the spring and only the gate at certain times to keep younger people from trashing it. I would like to have a pray meeting with them, they would do the praying, while I did the preaching with a good leather razor strap. I have already said to much but I have got to tell this about her, she was staying with mother one day right after my sister was born when I was about 4 years old , I did something wrong and she said she was going to get me, I climbed up in an apple tree and told her she couldn’t get to me. She said yes I can and picked up some small rocks and rocked me down out of the tree. It would be considered awful now but back then nothing was thought about it.
Just love you and girls. You are the start of my day about 5:30 in am. I live in a small town of Comfort Texas. I am 73 ( don’t feel that old). I have 260 nannie goats. Reason my day starts so early. If my husband were still alive he would love all your food. His mom cooked like that everyday. Just like any old German woman would. Please when is your cookbook going to be out?
Have a wonderful day and please say a prayer that we get rain
Carol-We are so glad you enjoy what we do! We really appreciate your support. The cookbook will be out in May 🙂
Carol, right after finishing high school I worked with a German lady at a company I worked at. She would often bring me and the other young boys “goodies” such as cookies and cakes that she had baked. Sometimes she would get upset with our supervisor and sound like a 45rpm record playing on 78 speed. Us boys along with the supervisor would get a big laugh when she did that. Her name was Edith.
I have a friend that prefers to obtain his drinking water from natural springs. Somehow, unless I was really desperate, drinking from springs seems risky to me due to widespread pollution. Back in 1980, we purchased 10 acres in central FL and when the drill hit a cavity in limestone beneath, we discovered that it was part of the system that feeds water into Rock Springs in Apopka/Orlando area. It was a favorite retreat for myself and the children & many a time we would wade in the calm water stream coming out and feel the sand under our feet, percolate even more water!
Haven’t been there for years now. That county charges admission and is always packed by people wanting to escape the heat. The peace and seclusion is nonexistent now. sad.
First time I think I have heard you mention Granny Hicks. Can you tell us who she is?…Also, that picture, is so sweet. I think it is the apron that caught my attention. Looking forward to more videos. God Bless
Glenda-Granny Hicks is a friend of our family. I’ve been interviewing her for several months. You can watch the interviews here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgR5ElukUAI&list=PL1hkzqrN_R52OeDgXJrhHdF0nM2rLvZav 🙂