AMERICAN SPAS

Redaelli Alessio

INTRODUCTION

People have been used geothermic and mineral water to get wet and for their health for thousands years.

The Balneotherapy, therapy that uses the natural mineral water for the treatment and care of diseases, also has a long story. Based on the archaeological discoveries in Asia, the mineral water has been used to get wet since the Bronze Age, about 5000 years ago. Lots of hot waters have been used in relation to religious rites in Egypt and by the Jewish in the Middle East.

Greeks, Turkish and Romans were famous from Persia to England for their development and use of spas.

The word “spa” takes its origin from a town near Liege in the south of Belgium near the German border. Here a spring of ferruginous water has been used by an iron master in 1326 to take care of his problems.

Then, he built a small hotel near the spring called Espa (which means “fountain” in his language).

Espa became very popular and from there the word SPA, used all around the English world to commonly indicate “medical spa”, comes from. (Lund, 1996).

Big spas have a long story, which takes back till the Roman Ages.

In England bathroom, for example, was originally known as “aquae Sulis”, Baden-Baden in Germany, as “aquae Aureliae” and Aix-les-Bains in France as “aquae Allobrogum” (Rockel, 1986).

Today, in Europe and Japan in particularly, the use of spa has been definitely accepted.

They are used both for preventive therapy and for the treatment of many diseases.

In the past the Soviet Union had till 3500 spas and almost 5000 affluent centers managed by the state.

In Czechoslovakia till 52 medical spas and more than 1900 mineral springs were counted and every years about 220.000 citizens take advantage of a free treatment in a spa for three weeks, paid by the national program of insurance against diseases.

The Czech spa of Karlbad and the spa of Piestanty in Slovakia are the most famous.

Most of these spas are going to be privatized.

At Rotorua, in New Zealand, the Queen Elizabeth’s hospital used (and still uses nowadays) different mineral waters and hot mud baths from the springs of their place to help out the soldiers of the World War II to take care of the injuries of the battles.

In Japan there are more than 1500 spas that are used for more than 100 millions of guests every year.

The American Indians have always considered the hot springs as sacred places and they believed in the power of the heath and mineral waters.

Montezuma, the great Aztec chief, spent so much time in a spa, “aqua Hedionda”, to take care of his onerous functions.

Every main hot spring in the UNITED STATES has a certain notation of use since the Indians, some of them for more than 10.000 years.

Moreover, these springs have been always recognized as neutral land, where warriors could go and rest safely.

Today there are about 210 spas in the U.S.A. with 4.5 millions of people who attended one of it in 1997.

What is a SPA?

Definition:  

The word “SPA” was born, beside the Belgian spa, also as a Latin abbreviation from: S = salus, P = per, A = aqua, or "Health through water."

In Germany they referred to the “Kur”, which does not mean only care, but preferably they are a series of treatments during the time as baths, taking of water (as drinks), massage, exercise, mud baths …

The famous thermal stations of France, Germany and England were elegant social and cultural centers. Most of the people who addressed to the cares (“kur”) did not do it only for medical reasons, but especially to see and being seen from the high society (Rockel, 1986). Other definitions include (DeVierville, 1998):

-"thermal spa is the social function of using water from a therapeutic point of view."

-"thermal spa is a place and a natural site with a prospective of time."

-"a thermal spa is a place with a goal, with a program, for a period of time."

Typical design of a SPA.

There are many types of designs for spas, depending on the local culture, on the unique characteristic of position and from what the architect is feeling in realizing it in terms of atmosphere, services and type of customers.

Two types are the most used in America:

the first one (pic. 1) is originally a suggestion for the Hawaii (Woodruff e Takahashi, 1990) and it is similar to the one located at Calistoga, in California.

This design includes the ricreative and pleasant areas that encircle the pools, where plants can live as well.

And also rooms for fitness and health zones find their place.

The zone of the pools is not structured just to guarantee the privacy, but also to allow an easy access to the common zones.

Pic 1

The second design (picture 2) has been suggested still for the Hawaii (Woodruff e Takahashi, 1999). This design gives emphasis to the possibilities of a private or public bathroom. This is the typical design of Polynesian pools and of Rotorua in New Zealand.

This one does not include environments for private rooms, which should be added in a separated position and could be cottages, for example.

Pic 2.

The semiprivate and reserved pools can be used only by one family and be rented on an hour schedule.

This could be better accepted by cultures where getting wet in public is more or less accepted.

Use of the thermal waters in the USA.

In the USA the use of natural springs, particularly the geothermic ones, went through three phases of development:

-(1) initial use by the Indians as sacred place,

-(2) following development by first European settlers to emulate the European spas and

-(3) concluding, as a place where you can relax and take care of yourself (nowadays).

The American Indians always considered the hot springs as sacred place of Wakan tanka ("big mystery” or "Sacredum grande" in the language of Lakota) and so they truly believed in the miraculous power of heath and mineral water.

Every important hot thermal spring in the UNITED STATES has a certain notation of use in the Indian tribes.

In many cases, they jealously keep the springs and maintained big secret of their existence till it has been possible during the European invasions.

Big battles have been fought between the Indians and the settlers to preserve their secrets and rights.

For long time the first Spanish explorers, such as Ponce de Leon and Hernando De Soto, searched the “fountain of youth”, which can be an exaggerated legend but clarifier of the importance of the hot thermal springs.

The first European settlers of the 1700 and 1800, found and used these natural hot springs and then started to understand their great commercial value, and so they developed many spas which followed closely the European tradition.

A lot of individual realizations had big success like the springs in Saratoga, New York; the White sulphureous springs in the West of Virginia, the Hot springs in Virginia, Georgia and Arkansas.

Still, the UNITED STATES did not have the government, the trade unions, the social security and a national program of insurance against diseases to support these developments. So, despite the benefits of the therapy from these thermal stays that had had big success in Europe and somewhere else in the world, the UNITED STATES loitered in the development of these mineral springs.

In the 40’s, the interest in the spas languished and most of the greatest resorts decayed and closed down in the end.

The industry of well-being, physical and mental health recently had a big increase and the interest of the customers went growing universally with a consequent big development of incomes and profits.

The incomes of the spas in the UNITED STATES are currently estimated at 10 billiards of dollars per year.

The number of customers of the spas went developing progressively from the 31% of the adult population in the 1987 till the 45% in the 1997.

The most traditional type of medical thermal station is the geothermic spa, characterized by bathroom and pools of natural mineral hot waters.

This recent interest in hot springs and fitness renovated the development of the spas in the United States.

This natural way of taking care and the movement of “return to nature” refused formalized treatment in Europe.

In fact, the majority of people know that in the UNITED STATES natural water often requires chlorination or other chemical treatment.

So, differently from the European spas in which medical care are done for specific diseases, the spas in the UNITED STATES give more importance to physical exercise, reduction of stress, improvement of depression and weight loss.

A recent interest is the development of “conservancies” of health to keep the zones as natural as possible for the activities of fitness and health.

In the States, the use of mineral and geothermic water developed following three main lines of thought and development:

-(1) the most interesting hot springs with hotels, rooms, services and good accommodations,

-(2) pools for diving or springs with pools with snack bar or possibility of camping

-(3) the non developed, primitive springs, without any services.

Characteristics of the American SPAS.

There are more than 115 important geothermic spas in the U.S.A. and many other smaller than these ones, giving the thousands of hot springs (1.800 reported by NOAA, 1980).

The majority of these are located in the volcanic regions of the west, but a lot of famous spas exist also in the east.

The main American spas are evaluated having an annual use of energy of 1.531 x 1012 kJ, or an equivalent of 340 thousands barrels of oil (BOE).

Thermic water in geothermic spas notably differs in composition from a place to another.

The interest in the spas in the UNITED STATES improved during the past century, when the federal and state government became the owners and the managers of the structures (Lund, 1996).

Here follows five of the most interesting examples of spas in the United States:

Springs of Saratoga, New York, located 250 km north of New York City. 

They have about 18 springs and wells with mineral carbonic water at 13°C.
Indians tribes of Iroquois and Mohawk attended the springs when they went hunting near there.
The first report of these springs written by the European settlers goes back to the beginning of 1600. (Swanner, 1988).

Since this moment, springs have been used for hydro and Balneotherapy, to take care from skin to digestive problems.

Beside, water with carbon dioxide has been bottled and sold as commercial product.

Due to the decline in the use of the spring at the beginning of the ‘900, the state of New York made the region become the park of Saratoga , and now it controls the geothermic activity including the only geyser located in the east side of the Mississippi river.

Many of the oldest “bathhouses”, Lincoln and Roosevelt, have been restored and now they supply mineral baths, hot packages and massages.

Two mineral waters in bottle are available: Mineral water of Saratoga and excelsior spring water.

The current park of thermal stations in Saratoga has 10 springs with other seven located in the surrounding zones of the city.

Hot springs of Georgia.

It is another famous mineral spring of the United States.

Springs have been used by the Indians since very long time, with unequivocal traces.

Then, these traces transformed into soldiers, with an inn built during the first years of the ‘800.

A certain number of climatic spas have been built in the zone, including a very Victorian inn of Meriwether.

It has been mainly known for the treatment of poliomyelitis since the beginning of the 20’s till the 60’s. It has been made famous by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was affected by poliomyelitis.

Here in 1932 he made people built the “small White House”.

The Foundation of hot springs in Georgia, which managed the springs, dedicated a lot of itself to the care of poliomyelitis.

It furnished the treatment in different pools built within the hot springs that flow at around 58 L/s at 31°C.

With the discovery and the adjustment of vaccines of poliomyelitis in the 50’s and 60’s, the use of these thermal baths went decreasing. Today, the Institute of Rehabilitation of Roosevelt’s hot baths in the state of Georgia furnishes rehabilitation and therapy for a wide range of inability.

Besides, the Institute uses water for Balneotherapy and vascular path.

Hot springs of Arkansas

They were one of the most popular and commercial spas zones of the UNITED STATES, built to imitate the development of the big European spas.

This geothermic resource is created by about 47 springs that produce a total of 4 million of liters of water at 60°C per day.

It is evaluated that these hot springs have been used by human beings since at least 10.000 years.

"The valley of vapors" was a site to be honoured and sacred to the Indians.

Beside, it has always been a neutral land, where warriors from all the tribes could rest and get wet in peace… a shelter from the battle.

The legend hands down that Hernando DeSoto, one of the first American explorers, visited the place in 1541. The springs have been developed in a rustic zone of relax at the beginning of the 1800.

It became so popular with the first European settlers to be transformed in a federal reserve in 1832.

Within the 1878, more than 50.000 people visited the springs yearly.

In 1921, it fell back under the jurisdiction of the service of the national park recently formed and it was renamed “Hot Spring National Park”.

People crowded in this new national park with their big pools opened along the street of the hot bath.

Till 1949, every thermal hotel had to have its own tower of evaporation to cool the hot mineral water received at 43°C, the maximum the human skin generally tolerates.

During that year, the service of the park installed some radiators which were cooled with air to furnish cool water to the system.

Now every thermal hotel can have two supplies of water: “hot” at 62°C and “cool” at 32°C.

From the original 47 springs, only two are actually available for public observation.

Even if the activity has been reduced a lot during the recent years, a complete range of treatment is still available: bathtub and bathroom in the pools, showers, treatments with vapors, massage and cold-hot path, or rub with alcohol.

Today, the park rents a certain number of thermal houses and it owns almost 2000 hectares of land. 

Thermopolis, Wyoming

It is located at the way out of the canyon of the Wind River, about 150 km south-east of the national park of Yellowstone. The main geothermic attraction in the zone is the hot spring with the big one that gushes with 120 L/s.

Around here there is the fountain of the youth that uses the natural mineral water of Sacajawea at 60 L/s. At least 8 hot springs in the zone have generated big terraces along the river. These terraces are mainly composed of very colorful layers of lime and chalk (known as travertine).

Springs, famous for being the biggest hot mineral springs of the world, flow at a temperature between 22 and 56°C with total dissolved minerals of 2400 mg/l.

The remote history of springs includes the use of the Indians; still in 1896 a treaty has been signed among the Indians Arapaho, Shoshone and the federal government which allowed the public use of hot springs.

The administration of the springs has been transferred then to the state of Wyoming that declares them National Park.

Today the National Park of Hot Springs extends till more than 420 hectares of irrigated grass and developed zone in a park of 26 km square, where it is possible to take geothermic and free baths beside other possibilities.

Among the facilities for residents, hot water is furnished by a pioneering centre for sanitary use, and the Gottsche Centre of Rehabilitation is specialized in the help of victims of heart attacks, spinal injuries and victim of burns. 

Calistoga,California

It was originally used by the Mayacmas and Pomos (Indians) for at least 4000 years. These first populations came from many miles around to use the natural hot springs, the fumaroles and preheated mud to take care of pains.

Beside, they built saunas and used the local cinnabar for the red paint in war.

To them, this was “the beautiful land” and “the place of the oven”. In the first years of the 1800, Spanish explorers explored the zone looking for a place with a possible emission.

They reported this place as “aqua Caliente”. Sammuel Brannan, in 1850, predicted a help to a spa similar to the hot springs in Saratoga, and in this way the name of the place was born by a combination of California and Saratoga (Archuleta, 1977).

He spent an evaluated sum of an half million of dollars to build a Resort in 1862. At the beginning of the ‘900, more than 30 Resorts existed in the surrounding zone, including a lot of thermal baths with mineral springs.

Within the 1930, most of these Resorts closed down due to financial difficulties.

About 15 years ago, Calistoga was transformed again in a “boomtown” with six important spas and lots of hotels in function.

All these hotels have their own geothermic water furnished by not very deep wells around 60 mt of depth with a temperature changeable from 77 to 93°C. Water for ponds and baths is cooled from 27 to 40°C and some of them have mud baths made with volcanic moss plus peat and ash.

Besides, Calistoga has an industry of mineral water and it is close to the wine industry of Napa valley.

Conclusions:

The geothermic water has been used extensively for pools and hot baths, but not for the heating or cooling of the structures of these spas. The domestic heating has been tested in the past in many hotels, still with scarce results. Tubes would rust or block for the deposits and they would require too many frequent repairs, re-assemblies and maintenance.

Cost was too high and so the “natural” domestic heating has been usually substituted with conventional systems of fossil fuel.

Today a geothermic centre, where lots of geothermic experts are trying to understand and solve these problems on a systematic base, exists.

The cost of the installation of suitable equipment and measures of safety compensates in the end the saving of fossil fuel for the heating, and they will be a very useful alternative and energetic source.

The use of medical thermal waters, which is in evident ascent, remains fundamental and it is always more required both for the care of diseases and for the beauty of the places.

This still remains the main and the most profitable use.