Cheyenne Spring (Manitou Springs, Colorado)

Cheyenne Spring
908 Manitou Avenue, Manitou Springs, Colorado
https://naiads.org/cheyenne-spring-manitou-springs-colorado/  by Thomas Baurley

Located right on Manitou Avenue in downtown Manitou Springs, Colorado is a sweet-tasting natural Artesian soda spring called Cheyenne Spring. This sweet-tasting bubbly elixir is believed to be over 20,000 years old and healing for digestive issues and osteoporosis. Drinking water this old empowers the soul with the geology of the Earth and peps the spirit. It comes from aquifers located a mile below the earth’s surface. This is one of the 7 most popular springs in the area.
Most of the Springs of Manitou were known for their health benefits, especially with digestive systems. This was especially helpful to the tribes visiting the waters as their diets were rich with wild game, the meat of which was notable for acidic effects on the body when consumed. These mineral waters helped re-balance the stomach acids.

This magical spring of Manitou has added health benefits based on its mineral contents that are well known for helping with blood pressure, nerve transmission, muscle contractions, osteoporosis, the heart, bones, teeth, and blood coagulation. It is also good for helping release energy from food digestion, regulating fluids, and stimulating the kidneys to release toxins. Magically it is a blood, bone, and heart tonic. It’s year-round temperature is approximately 49-55 degrees Fahrenheit.
Geology
The waters that create this spring are said to fissure up from a mile beneath the surface fed by aquifers created from rainwater and snowmelt of Pikes Peak. When the water reaches these depths, they heat up from the Earth’s core, become mineralized, and flow up through fissures and cracks in the Ute Pass fault zone where they become carbonated within limestone caverns, to the surface where they are tapped as natural springs or wells.
History
This was one of the natural springs frequented by the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Jicarilla Apache, and Ute Indians throughout history. It was held as a sacred site for healing, meditation, and peace. Plains and mountain tribes agreed to peace during their visits while frequenting the springs together. It was the white man to break the peace of the area.
Fur trappers, miners, and traders came to the area and discovered the magic waters. It became an area known for curative effects in treating tuberculosis. When the Europeans and white settlers came to the area, they pushed the tribes from this area. The spring became commercialized in the 1800s. During the 1870s, this was one of three springs located in Soda Springs park: Navajo, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Manitou Springs.
By 1872, the Town Company, owned by Manitou Springs founder Dr. William A. Bell and his friend General William J. Palmer built a rustic stick pagoda over it and created a park called Soda Springs Park on the spot. They made the first bottling plant that year with an associated bath house combining the waters with Navajo Springs to prosper from its magical health benefits.
By the 1890’s it was contained by the current sandstone spring house by the Manitou Mineral Water Company and bottled. The spring house was constructed of stone quarried from the Kenmuir Quarry where Red Rocks’ open space now sits just east of town. Within the spring house is a historic copper-clad, carbon dioxide gas collector settled in the center of the cistern which the water company boasted was the world’s first mechanism to capture natural gas emitting from the source and being able to re-introduce it during the bottling process for the production of the best naturally sparkling water on the market called “Manitou table water”.
As the region was commercialized, the park diminished in size and was taken over by businesses. It was flanked by Soda Springs and Navajo Springs. When the company collapsed, which many believe was caused by a curse placed by the Ute that no white business would ever prosper from the springs, the font and housing fell into disrepair until restored by the Mineral Springs Foundation in 1990-1991.
The current public font was crafted by local sculpture artisan Paul Rogers in Bronze. In June of 2011, a coliform bacteria was found in the spring closing the spring until it was dealt with. It was cleaned and re-opened shortly after. It is one of the most popular springs visited in the area.