Ozark Hotel burning 1917

At its height in the 1880 and 1890s – a time period often referred to as the ‘Gilded Age’ – Creal Springs boasted of a large bath house, several hotels, and eight mineral-fed springs covered by elaborate wells. According to Stu Filege in Tails and Trails of Southern Illinois, the entrepreneurs who sold the mineral water claimed it cured kidney disease, malaria, “female disease,” and childhood ailments. (p. 24).

Unfortunately, in 1917 the large Ozark Hotel burned to the ground, marking the beginning of end of Creal Springs’ glory days.