Wootan Wells
Bremond, Robertson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Famous early health spa and resort. First well was dug 1878 by landowner Francis Wootan. Water tasted good, but turned dishes yellow and clothes red. Even so, it seemed to possess amazing curative properties. Wootan soon built a hotel and in 1879 a resort town made its debut. He formed promotion company with T. W. Wade and more hotels, a bottling works, dance pavilion, and school sprang up. Leading socialites came for miles to "take the waters." Disaster struck in 1915 when fire swept the town. In 1921 the last buildings also burned.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Francis Wootan dug a well here in 1878, the water discolored dishes and clothing yet seemed to work small miracles on the ailing — and a health resort was born. By 1879 hotels, a bottling works, a dance pavilion, and a school had sprung up as socialites traveled for miles to "take the waters" in the fashion of America's Gilded Age spa craze. Fire ended the dream, sweeping the town in 1915 and consuming the last buildings in 1921.
Why it matters
Wootan Wells captures the vanished world of the American mineral-spring resort — and, in its fiery end, the fragility of the boomtowns that dotted the nineteenth-century Texas landscape.
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Related people
- · Francis Wootan
- · T. W. Wade
Themes & tags
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