COLUMBIAN SPRINGS

This spring was discovered in 1803 by Gideon Putnam as he was clearing land around the Congress Spring.  It is located one hundred feet southwest of the Congress Spring in Congress Park just south of the Broadway entrance.  In 1806 it was tubed by Gideon Putnam.  In 1823 it was purchased, along with the Congress Spring and surrounding land, by John Clarke, who constructed a Grecian pavilion over it in 1840.  In 1865, after the Congress and Empire Spring Companies merged, the water was bottled.

The water is rich in iron and has a high content of carbon dioxide gas.  At one time it was called the “headache” spring, because some people experienced a headache after drinking a quantity of it.

In 1981 the City of Saratoga Springs found the spring which had dried up and disappeared in 1884.  They tubed it and again built a Grecian pavilion over it similar to the one John Clarke had constructed.  This project was financed by the Saratoga Historical Society.