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Show 5 310KX1X ?, XOYE3IBER 22, 1923. A Why Our Healthiest City Owes Its Low Death Rate to the Springs Known for Centuries to the Indians and Now Discovered by Experts v -- m; Vlrgtnla Holland, of Albany, a Typical Vanus of tbo Beauty Balt , V'hard tbo Sprinya Arc Locatad. ' i f J m tv ?. 3333:- - 'Vhsl-nr. AA. J; rjw -- . Half a Do: rHEN Juan Ponce de Leon, the Georgia Paachas Spanish explorer, made his first aa tha Springboard voyage to America in 1493, he at Blaa Mineral heard from,the ..Indians of Florida the .. Springe, marvelous story of a secret spring whose For Year . water? cured the sick and restored youth a Resort to the aged. Patronized At first he believed it was a myth, but by Georgia on subsequent voyages he became conFolk and vinced that such a spring actually existed. Now in the pracPonce de Leon was a National tical soldier not a dreamer. In February, Spotlight. 1515, he obtained a grant from the king of Spam to discover and settle the islands of Florida and Bimini, for the specific medipurpose of locating this Valuable N cinal spring. Neither he nor the king imagined they were looking for fantasy or miracles, or . i.t' hard-heade- 'j 4 a- - , O' - ' - Z' h V Blue Mineral Springs at Albany, Ga., a Natural Pool of Transparent Water Bubbling up from a Fathomless Cavern, sume the search. Senator Copeland is inclined to believe that if Ponce de Leon had pushed on he Albany, from St. John's would have found in Blue Mineral Springs River, but finally became discouraged and had to return. the fountain he sought. Says the Senator: Later he tried to sail When I visited Albany I discovered around Florida, which he believed to be an island, and one of the most efficient health departa city approached the Blue Springs ments in the United States, with but observing all the modem rules of sanitaagain up the west coast, back was compelled to turn tion, but there are plenty of communities and was subsequently killed in the United States where all these things m Cuba before he could re- - are being done, but which do not enjoy of Albany. the low death-rat- e "Therefore, there had to be an Juan Ponce de Leon, Who Missed a Finding Bluo Mineral Spring by additional, unknown reason ex- mysterious factor rot yet Only a Few Mile. plained. Centuries ago Ponce de Leon set forth to find the fountain of youth. He be- lieved, from what the Indians told him, that it was m the northern part of Florida. Like many another man who has had a great ambition, he failed. Who knows but that the actual fountain has been discovered at last? not a place of miracles, surely but the spring which the Indians justly believed had great health-givin- g and curative properties. On the outskirts of Albany is wonderful spring known to the natives as Blue Springs. For hundreds of years the waters of this spring have been famous for their healing In the immediate neighborqualities. hood are found piles of flint where the workmen of the Stone Age made their agricultural Implements and the paraphernalia of war. I saw several such stone heaps where unfinished arrowheads and chips of flint are found by the thousands. In the office of the Albany Herald Is a collection of Indian rehes, the property of Henry T. McIntosh. This is the finest private collection of the sort I have ever seen. Its nearest rival is the collection of Professor Wilbert B. Hinsdale, of Ann The collection of Mr. Arbor, Michigan. McIntosh is significant in that it contain only the arrowheads, spearheads, skinmortars, pestles, pottery and other PALM ners, objects of interest found in this oneBEACH county. It is not a coyection o interesting relic gathered fiorrv everywhere in the world. I speak of this to show that this neighborhood was actually the permanent home of groups of persons belonging to the early tribes. Who were the workmen in the old days who devoted themselves to this particular work? They were the old men of the tribe. Undoubtedly they had been attracted here by the healing water of the Blue Springs. Drinking daily of these waters, they lived on and reached remarkable ages. It was this fact, no doubt, that caused the fame of thee springs to spread throughout the New World. Probably exaggeration was indulged In to tome extent, as is often the case when talking about length of years. But In any event, theae waters were looked upon as the fountain of youth. Perhaps thia vary spring was the one sought by Ponce de trated far into the interior, in the general direction of Twe South Georgia Girls Whose Robust HItk It Attributed, by Dr. Copeland and Other Experts, to the Mineral Water Near Their Home. The water rushes out in a steady flow Thia Map of Florida and DOTTED LINE of 70,000 gallons a South Georgia beau-tifInto a minute Shows How de Leon land Ponce for a fountain that magically imparted stream, which Narrowly across Northjourney eternal youth to those who drank from merges a mile lower Ponco de Leon Florida. ern it or bathed in it. River. Flint the into Missed An analysis of That curious legend of the fountain HEAVY ARROWS Finding the Leon de shows after waters later the of youth sprang up Spring Which His sea rout! around was He himself contain in to had failed them hn quest. the Indiana into Gulf and Florida and real a practical thing. lime, silica, iron, looking for Told Him on land to Georgia Now, suddenly, after five hundred alumini, magnesia, About. years, it is believed that the actual spring, sulphur and chlorline. ine. It is also beor fountain, has been discovered. ARSTRAIGHT in lieved about that came The discovery curiously, they may radio-activ- e at beneficent propROW mild and a dramatic, but indirect, wy. top points erties which cannot be analyzed! For a long time the United States Govto Blue Mineral vital the been interested in ernment ha, For many years people of Albany Springs and white arstatistics of the city of Albany, Georgia, have been bathing in this pool and row to actual photo of southin the located in Daugherty County, drinking its waters from a fountain ern part of the State, not far from the whose intake runs down into its Springs. . Florida line. pure source but without ever Albany has the lowest death rate of dreaming that it might be the In Union. 1924, supposedly mythical fountain any city of Its size In the with a population of 15,000, it had a of youth, sought in vain by record of only 158 deaths. Its typhoid de Leon. death rate is 45 to 100,000 against the The chief reasons for believnations average of 75 to 100,000. it to be that actual fountain ing Albanys climate, sanitation and hygiene are two: are ideal,, but those facts alone couldnt . In anT around It has been explain the mystery, for other cities found the finest and most varequally ideal had a higher death rate, ied collection of Indian relics wnile year after year that of Albany re- in the world. This proves that mained the lowest. the Indiana voyaged frequently A few weeks ago United States Senaand in great numbers from - to visit the tor Dr. Royal S. Copeland, formerHeahh long distances Commissioner of New York City, made a and that many of them spring viait to Albany to tee if he could solve dwelt permanently by preferthe mystery. ence near it. He believes be has found the solution The second reason In Blue Mineral Springs, a wonderful is that it corresponds gushing, transparent pool lust outside the geographically with city, and In the analysis of its waters and the spot de Leon was of the similar artesian water which the aeekmg. He first followed a false trail to people of Albany habitually drink. Not only thia, but other discoveries Bimini, but later behave led to the aenous conviction that came convinced that Blue Mineral Spring is the actual founthe spring was in the tain described by the Indian and sought interior of Florida in vain by Ponce de Leon. (which would then The spring Itself is a pool of transpar have included the ent blue, in a natural limestone hsain, 85 - pent of South Georgia S amater Dr. Regal S. Copeland, Health fee t deep. Into which water bubbles up fn which Albany is from a submerged limestone cavern of located) and, at a Authority, Convinced, After a Visit to unknown depth. y matter of fact, pens-- Alkaay, That Ponca jo Lone Wat Right. Carroll JKS. hr lstnaUnaal tmsm hnkw ion ul 5. feet In depth. Throwing ter, thirty-'iv- e a penny into the water, I could see it distinctly glistening upon the white sands at the bottom of the pool. So quietly does the water escape from its underground cavern that the eye can hardly discern the current. Going to the outlet o the pool, however, there Is seen a rushing torrent of water, as blue as turquoise. If you have ever stood upon the bridge at the outlet of Lake Genevii, you have seen the blue water of the lake rushing in torrents to form the River Rhone. Like an arrow from the string of the bow it makes its way toward the sea. It is like this at Blue Springs. 7 In the town itself there I another WelL This as the known Coffey spring is a fountain of artesian water long famous for its purity and wholesomeness. This particular supply contains a considerable amount of sulphur. It has tha distinct taste and smell of sulphur. But even yet I have rot tola the full story of the water supply of this wonderful city of Albany. The city water comes from three artesian wells of varying depths. Every drop of water consumed in this community is water which comes from great denths. "These minerals, soluble, of course, as is show n by the wonderful clearness of. the water, are contained in such proportion as to make them readily available for the need of the human body. The bones, the teeth, the fibrous tissues, the framework of the body, are built up siri strengthened by the minerals takgnin this water. It is rare, however, to hv such happy combinations of necessary mineral! in water of such remarkable purity. "It comes from 0 deep In the earth that ther is no possibility of surface contamination, and there 1 a remarkable coldnes to the stream. The water teema properties actually to possess radio-activ- e which give it stimulating effect. I examined the teeth of dozens cf boys and girl in the schools. 1 talked with physicians of the locality. I am convinced there is something more in Albany than s.mply tv observance cf'rule of 4 hat else can it be but the sanitation. Leon stood on a springboard a dozen feet 1 ue from babyhood of 4hee beneficent above the surface of the water and could I waters? Viho knows but Ponce de Leon look down to the very bottom of the era H.wts r.ght. -- -TJ 1 CjTu ynuia r tusm 1 t A-- |