CRAZY WELL

Who can ever get enough of a good thing? Especially when it comes right out of the ground? Mineral Wells businessmen sure couldn’t when their economic prosperity rose with claims of “health benefits” resulting from drinking and bathing in the community’s mineral-laden ground water, a naturally-occurring condition in which inorganic solids permeate the local H20. Together, local businessmen launched a successful campaign and, as a result, people flocked to this Texas Fort Trail community, turning the small railroad terminus into a health resort destination.

Mineral water advocate Ed Dismuke was one of those businessmen, establishing The Famous Mineral Water Company in 1904 in order to sell and distribute the local mineral water. Touting curatives at the turn of the century required few restrictions, and usually, anecdotes were powerful enough to trump scientific analysis. The Company, now in its hundredth year, is still thriving, offering customers body products like soaps and lotions, souvenirs like totes, caps, and mugs, and, of course, bottles of local mineral water, all branded with the name of the source that started it all – an 1881 water supply dug by local “Uncle” Billy Wiggins called the “Crazy Well!"