The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-01-21
WATERS OF wAooNDA.
It Isn't Necessary to Go Abroad For
Mineral Water.

The popping of corks at the Waconda
mineral water booth can be heard over
the entire exposition building. Wa
conda water is being distributed free.
The booth is in charge of M. Eugene
Green, of Kansas City.
The wonderful waters of Waconda
are found about three miles east of
CaWker City, on the Central Branch Of
the Missouri Pacific railway.
Long before Gen. Zebulon Pike made
his explorations of Louisiana territory
and hauled down the Spanish flag at
the Pawnee village, in Republic county,
a few miles east of the springs of the
Great Spirit, the aboriginal inhabitants
had spread the fame of Waconda's
waters far and wide among the tribes
which then chased the buffaloes and wild
horses over the plains of the great
American desert. While it is probable
that the Spanish cavaliers knew of
these springs and visited them during
the period when Spain dominated this
region, yet no record was made by
them of the fact, and it is therefore only
justice to ascribe to General Pike, and
the soldiers of his command. the honor
of discovering the most remarka BILE
springs in the world, this discovery
probably being made within a very few
days after the hosting of the American
flag at the "Pawnee republic" a days
march to the eastward of Waconda,
and here it is reputed they camped for
a time before continuing their explo-
ratiOnS to the westward. They found
here a beautiful mound, nearly circular,
rising to a height of thirty feet above
the surrounding country, with a cir
cum ference at its base of Sixty-Six
rods, one side having a gradual slope
from the bottom to the summit, while
the other sides were rugged and almost
precipitous. At the summit of this
mound they found a pool more than
fifty feet across and so nearly circular
as to indicate the work of man rather
than a natural formation, and upon
efforts being made to ascertain its
depth they were surprised to discover
that it was apparently fathomless. In
a few days the soldiers of Pike passed
on, and the Indians were left in un-
disturbed and peaceful possession for
two thirds of a century or more, and
before they were finally compelled to
retreat before the advancing civilization
of the white man an Indian settlement
of a perm anent character had been
made around this spring of the Great
Spirit" as it was called by them, and
even now evidence is frequently dis
covered of this primitive village of the
plains.
Now, however, where once was the
wigwam of the chief is a three-story
hotel; in place of the Indian warriors
and squawS, there are men and women.
and the descendants of men and women
who have come from all quarters of
the earth, conquered the desert and
made it bloom and blossom as the rose.
Where once the Indians held their
sacred dances there is now a pavilion
in which lads and lassies, to the strains
of sweet music, worship the goddess
Terpsichore; and express trains now
glide along the line of the old Indian
trail. replacing as a means of trans
portation the diminutive ponies of
those earlier days.
Waconda water is a mineral water
for both table and medicinal use.