CascAda History #10 - Cascade Springs Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

bretina: Stopped by with a new log, to find the cache and how it was attached is gone. There really was no place else to place this without going on private property. We decided this one has run its course.

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Hidden : 9/14/2013
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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CascAda History #9 - Cascade Springs
The Cascade & Ada Township History Series

Although Cascade itself was laid out in 1836 and 1869, a smaller, scenic village called Cascade Springs was platted in 1890.

Cascade Springs, on the east side of the Thornapple River, housed a three-story, fifty room luxury hotel, about a half mile north of the bridge near Cascade Springs and Riveredge Drives. The hotel was called the “Cascade Magnetic Mineral Springs Hotel” and claimed to be “equal of any luxury hotel in Michigan.”

The springs were thirty feet from the east bank of the river. They were analysed and large traces of lime sulphate, lime bicarbonate, potassium chloride and sodium chloride were found. The ingredients, according to those at the hotel, claimed to “afford a speedy and permanent cure to those afflicted with rheumatism, gout, dyspepsia, paralysis and nervous disorders.” In those days, bathing in the healing waters was considered as vital as drinking them. Hotel management put the copper bathing tubs down in the dark basement where they would not be distracting to the other guests.

Old sketches of the hotel show it as a “period” gingerbread motif structure, with a wide porch extending all around. Cost of the place was a significant $8,000. It stood on the east bank, just above the point in the river where the springs bubbled up. It was completed in 1891.

By all accounts the sheer beauty of the spot made it ideal for a resort even without the springs. At the height of its popularity it boasted well-kept lawns and shrubbery. Not only was it carefully landscaped, but there were croquet areas and fine clay tennis courts where top-hatted gentlemen and long-skirted ladies would wile away the hours. Strolling peacocks added their distinctive touch, parading back and forth on the grounds.

The hotel closed around 1912. Claims of what happened to the hotel vary from fire to being razed for money for the lumber. However, the most probable reason for the demise of the luxurious hotel was that other mineral resorts, more accessible to the public, drew away its business.

Information provided by the Cascade Chronicles, published in 1987 by the Cascade Historical Commission

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