Mt. Vernon Springs
~Near Siler City, N.C.~
Natural healing mineral springs, open and free for the public to enjoy
by
H. Kent Craig ©1999

Click the triangle "on" button to hear the relxaxing sounds of Mt. Vernon Springs

Photos of Mt. Vernon Springs, near Siler City, N.C.,
along with directions and a copy of a map to them,
are at the bottom of this page.


Hydrogeologists will tell you that it’s impossible for one single natural spring to produce two different streams of spring water with entirely different and chemically separate chemistries, but Mt. Vernon Springs, just south of Siler City, N.C., does and is this scientifically impossible.

From a single tapped natural spring, hidden now under a thick layer of concrete shelter-slab as required by the Chatham County Health Department, two pipes placed meeting at the confluence-apex of the spring do indeed produce two completely different kinds of spring water, one with lots of iron and sulfur and such called "health" and the other full of calcium and magnesium and other lighter and better tasting natural minerals called "beauty". As with the balance of life, "health" normally flows twice as fast and at twice the volume as "beauty”, since we need twice the help with our health as we do with our beauty, beauty without health meaning not much at all.

I first discovered the existence of Mt. Vernon Springs several years when a local TV reporter, Don Ross of Channel 11 in Durham NC, did one of those human interest stories about them. In the story, he featured three or four people who had been in poor health from arthritis and lung problems and any other multitudes of chronic medical conditions whose health had been if not completely then significantly restored by a frequent "taking of the waters".

At the time, my rheumatoid arthritis was as bad as it ever had been in my forty-some years and my psoriatic arthritis, which is "rides atop" the bad rheumatoid arthritis and creates huge, ugly patches not only of very bad skin similar to bad "regular" psoriasis but actually eats into the underlying muscle tissue where you can sometimes see down into the blood-and-guts parts of limbs and other body parts, was literally eating me alive. Even though I was and am still skeptical of the health claims of most supposedly healthful things, the pain from the psoriatic arthritis places was warping my mind in bad ways and I figured I had nothing to lose, so to Mt. Vernon Springs I went.

I found a nondescript almost-dumpy-looking shed atop a concrete slab with a similar-sized slightly below-ground concrete pit to one side of it and two old metal pipes coming out from the side of the upper-level shed, the pipes emptying into the lower-level pit that was made as part of the upper-level shed, a drain at the other end of the five-foot-square "ceremonial pit" called that though no Christian baptisms or pagan cleansing rituals have ever taken place there to anyone’s knowledge leading out from the pit to underneath the surrounding terrain and draining into a nearby creek.

It’s part of the "ritual" that when a past visitor takes someone new who is new to The Springs for the first time, they go down the four steps into the ceremonial pit with two glasses and offers their guest a glass full of either "health" or "beauty" and partakes of an equal amount of whatever their guest drinks with them, and then they and their guests drink a full glass of a half-and-half mixture next before drinking from either or both as they freely wish to. This ensures that no matter how good your health is, it’ll be better, and no matter how beautiful you are, you’ll look even more handsome with regular partakings of The Healing Waters.

To help heal my psoriatic arthritis places, I would take a washcloth with me and soak it with both health and beauty waters and keep my bad places dampened as well as pouring the waters directly onto those places as I would lounge around and relax and drink liberally of the healing waters slowly, letting their restorative powers slowly seep into my body. I did this every-other week for two months although I noticed a marked improvement a week or so after my first trip there. After two months of twice-a-month visits there (I live about an hour’s drive away from The Springs) and being healed almost 50% at that point, I cut back to a visit every two to three months, a schedule I have kept since and which has kept my psoriatic arthritis completely cured and has made the rheumatoid arthritis which I was born with in every joint in body and which should have made a paraplegic cripple or worse now save for the healing power of prayer, Craig-family stubbornness, and these miracle healing waters of Mt. Vernon Springs much less than it ever was before, probably only a quarter as bad is it was when I was in my twenties or thirties.

Unlike many who take cases of empty jugs or 55-gallon barrels to fill with the waters to take home with them, and you’re quite welcome to do that if you wish, public access to The Springs being completely free and open to the public 24 hours a day thanks to the Foust family in nearby Siler City which still owns them after 150 years of being in their family and which still gives access to the public and thanks too to Mt. Vernon Springs Presbyterian church just up the hill from The Springs which maintains the grounds for the enjoyment of those pilgrims who come to partake, I don’t take any water home to use in making my coffee or tea or for drinking purposes, but that’s just my preference, you’re welcome to harvest and take home as much of The Waters as you wish to, there’s no curse attached in doing so, only blessings bestowed.

Back in the day, back before automobiles and planes in the latter part of the Victorian age through the early part of the 20th Century, literally tens of thousands of health seekers came to Mt. Vernon Springs quite literally from all four corners of the globe by ship or horse & buggy or stagecoach or train to the resort grounds which once stood up on the hill nearby to stay while they took of daily treatments of The Waters to heal their ravaged bodies as the drop-dead-gorgeous North Carolina countryside helped heal their tired and worried minds. As the Twentieth Century entered its New Age, places of natural tonic for body and soul such as Mt. Vernon Springs gradually feel out of favor as "The New Medicinal Tonics" as approved by the newly-empowered American Medical Association created an entirely new healing paradigm, out with what has worked for tens of thousands of years and in with the largest beta health experiment in the history of the world which by the way is still an experiment-in-progress, sad to say. The number of guests per season started gradually tapering off into the 1920’s, and when the old hotel finally burned down, it was never rebuilt back.

When you go for the first time there, first drink of The Waters, then step atop the three-inch-diameter hole in the concrete pad on the upper level that marks the spot underneath where The Springs actually are, face due north towards the cattle field across the road and close you eyes for a moment and just relax, letting the vortex energy from The Springs just flood and flow through your mind, connecting you not just with the river of eternity but with your own, true self, your present, past and future. No matter your belief system or none if you do or don’t have one, standing atop this apogeal hydrological twin natural spring impossibility after you have shared in its joy of healing mankind for untold millennia and letting your mind go quiet and your soul float free atop its current of all possibilities is truly, truly a true healing experience.

Directions From US Highway 64 at Siler City, NC: as you enter the east side of town, take US Highway 421 South Exit approximately three miles south; where the four-lane part of 421 chokes down to a single two lane part, go approximately one-quarter mile and look for a green Chatham County road sign that reads "Foust Lane"/State Road 1134/SR1134 on the sign and turn right onto it; follow Foust Lane approximately one mile until you come to a stop sign at Old US 421 Highway; go straight through the stop sign, across Old 421, over the railroad tracks, following that road past the Presbyterian church for another half-mile or so; as you go around a sweeping curve to where you see a rural road crossroads at the bottom of the hill and a large field of cattle to your right; The Springs will be on your left at the bottom of the hill, you’ll see an old concrete foot bridge near them and a granite memorial near the road that reads "Mt. Vernon Springs C. 1837", you really can’t miss them; pull down the driveway all the way as close as you can get to them since more than likely another partaker of The Waters will show up before you leave, the faithful from all over the world still making their way to them frequently.

Directions From US Highway 1 at Sanford, NC: Take US Highway 421 North approximately 25 miles; look for the green Chatham County road sign that reads "Foust Lane" and turn left on to it, then follow the rest of the directions above to The Springs. If 421 North widens to a four-lane boulevard, then you’ve gone too far and just missed it, go up to the next exit and circle back down on 421 South and follow the rest of the directions above. You’ll be glad you did.

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Photos of Mt. Vernon Springs, near Siler City, N.C., taken March of 2006.

Approaching Mt. Vernon Springs from Foust Lane off of Old 421; they're on the left at the bottom of the slight hill just before the crossroads intersection.	Getting ready to turn left into the gravel driveway to the springs.
The old "springhouse".	The "springwell"; take the steps down to access the actual pipes bringing water from the springs; taking the steps down, the pipe for " Health" will be on your left, "Beauty" will be on your right.
Close-up view of the springwell.	Filling my cup with "Health" waters.
Looking from the concrete platform above which covers the actual springs (the hole in the middle of it is atop the approximate location of the springs beneath) that the local health department made the owners install many years ago, "Health" is on your right from this perspective, "Beauty" on your left.	Click on this image to go to a larger full-sized page version of it

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