 |
Hot, Steamy History Returns - Mineral Spas Make Mt. Clemens Comeback
Author: Susan Gans  | Posted: 22-05-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 26 | Rating: (220)  (?) 
MT. CLEMENS - Julie Bogogvski stepped out of the steamy bathtub, into a white terry cloth robe and onto the pages of local mineral bath history.
Bogogvski was the inaugural mineral bath customer at the Tranquil Life Center, the first commercial spa to open in downtown Mt. Clemens in nearly a century,
"Ooh, I love this," bakery owner Bogogvski said after a 25-minute soak in the mineral-laden hot water on Friday. "I'm going to be a regular customer."
The Life Center mineral bath officially opens today, possibly signaling a new era for an old enterprise. Mt. Clemens boosters once called it "Bath City USA" because of its busy spas.
Eleven hotels dating back to the late 1800s once operated mineral baths in the Macomb County seat, attracting millions of visitors each year who sought comfort from arthritis, rheumatism and skin disorders. Notables who came included Babe Ruth, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Mae West, Jack Dempsey and Helena Rubenstein.
By the mid-1970s, modern medicine had taken the life out of the mineral bath business and the last of the hotels closed.
Now there's a minor resurgence. St. Joseph Mercy Hospital renewed the mineral baths last year and expects more than 1,000 customers this year, said Scott Adler, a vice-president. The hospital on North Avenue will add six more mineral bath tubs next year.
Both sites offer massages after 20-minute dips in 103-degree water. Tranquil Life plays soothing music and uses an iridescent, bubbling fountain to enhance the relaxation.
"I'd like to see Mt. Clemens be the health mecca it was at the turn of the century," said Jane Buiting, who owns that center with Ed Meerscheart. The alternative health center also offers yoga, acupuncture and herbal medicine.
"What you're seeing now is people going back to more holistic medicine," she said. "After we opened our business, so many people asked if we had mineral baths."
Buiting said that modern baths don't use black mud, as in the past, or have the "rotten egg" sulfur smell that wafted through Mt. Clemens for decades.
"The old baths were gruesome," Buiting said. "They were tar-looking, gunky and they stunk."
Those drawbacks were eliminated through a refining process, said Susan Gans, owner of Geologix, a local company that makes purified mineral bath crystals under the brand name Ache Away. The product is used by both Mt. Clemens spas.
Gans uses water from the city's only working well, which taps into an aquifer below the city. Officials with the 102-year-old hospital hope to tap a well under its site to draw reputedly therapeutic water.
Gans said mineral bath spas are cropping up in other parts of Michigan, such as Margot's Spa in Birmingham.
Quinnie Cody, a former Mt. Clemens mayor, admits he was skeptical of the baths' value until he got a gift certificate for treatments at St. Joseph.
"I can assure you it has terrific power," Cody said. "It relieves pain. I thought people were under some hypnosis, but I'll tell you it is really good."
Singer Eddie Cantor also endorsed the mineral soakings in a 1949 Daily Monitor Leader newspaper article.
"You've got something here that's without parallel anywhere in the world," Cantor was quoted as saying. "It's your community's obligation to mankind to tell the world about it."
Cody, who came to Mt. Clemens during the 1940s, recalled that streets were crowded each day with thousands of health-seekers. "You couldn't come downtown because of all the people here for the mineral baths," the ex-mayor said.
Julie Bogogvski stepped out of the steamy bathtub, into a white terry cloth robe and onto the pages of local mineral bath history.
"I'd like to see Mt. Clemens be the health mecca it was at the turn of the century."
Jane Butting, co-owner of Tranquil Life Center
'Bath City' heritage
1865: George Steffens hits brackish mineral water under Mt. Clemens while drilling for oil.
1873: City's first bathhouse, The Original, opens at Jones and Water streets.
1880: Avery House is built as the first hotel for mineral bath customers. It could accommodate 400 guests.
1897: The Park Hotel and Bath House opens on East Street as the largest and most famous of the city's spas. Celebrities stayed at the hotel, razed in 1940.
1899: The St. Joseph Sanitarium and Bathhouse is built on North Avenue. It later became a hospital.
1910: The Arethusa, last of the bathhouses, was built on Gratiot (now South Main), south of Cass.
1976: The Colonial Hotel closes its mineral baths.
1999: St. Joseph Mercy Hospital renews mineral baths at its 100-year-old building on North Avenue as a centennial gimmick.
2000: Mineral baths are so popular,
St. Joseph decides to bring them back permanently.
2001: St. Joseph plans to expand the business in 2002 to six baths, hoping to draw mineral water from an aquifer beneath the hospital.
2001: Tranquil Life Center becomes the first private commercial mineral bath business to open downtown in nearly a century.
Source: "Mount Clemens Bath City USA," by Marie Ling McDougal, and Detroit News archives.
Rate this Article:
Current: 0 / 5 stars - 0 vote(s).
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/women's-issues-articles/hot-steamy-history-returns-mineral-spas-make-mt-clemens-comeback-422564.html
About the Author:Geologix Inc. manufactures products using a proprietary formula featuring 34 natural minerals contained in the ancient sea water from the famous Michigan Basin -- a concentration of minerals higher than that found in any known body of water in the world. Mineral Essentials focuses on spa, skin care, and massage products to moisturize and provide anti-aging protection for great skin. http://www.mineralessentials.com>Mineral Essentials
|
Submitting articles has become one of the most popular means of generating quality backlinks and targeted traffic to your website. Join us today - It's Free! |
|
Related Articles
The Spa: A History in the Renewal of Body, Mind and Spirit
By: Ann Knapp | 16/12/2007 | Alternative Medicine
The Greeks and Romans did it. Ottomans and the Japanese practiced its health-enhancing benefits. Stretching back to Mesopotamia, spa-going is not a new phenomenon. It's been practiced for thousands of years and by an untold number of cultures.
Spa Glossary - A To Z
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Health
Know the difference between acupuncture and acupressure? How about Shiatsu and Watsu? The spa world is filled with a dizzying collection of terms and procedures. Following is a sample glossary, thanks to Spa Finder, to help spa-goers speak and understand the lingo with ease.
Acupressure
Used to stimulate the flow of energy...
Wonder of the Waters: A History of Essential Mineral Baths
By: Ann Knapp | 16/12/2007 | Alternative Medicine
For centuries, hot springs have offered numerous health benefits for everything from arthritis to indigestion. Sulfur, for instance, is credited with relieving nasal congestion, while sodium bicarbonate and calcium are said to enhance circulation. A number of studies have also indicated that soaking in hot mineral spring waters lessens the pain of arthritis.
Spa Trends Feature More Sleep, More Green, And More Accessibility
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
In search of affordable and cutting-edge medical procedures for the faction of its cost in the United States, more and more Americans are traveling abroad to places like India or Bangkok, creating the new trend of Medical Tourism. Hotels and resorts are now in great position to offer themselves as...
Magnificent Massage: The Health Benefits of Bodywork
By: Ann Knapp | 18/12/2007 | Alternative Medicine
With experts estimating that nearly ninety percent of disease is stress related, now more than ever it's imperative that Americans make the most of self-care options available today to help decrease and manage stress levels. Massage, the application of soft-tissue manipulation techniques to the body, has shown to reduce stress and fatigue while improving circulation.
Metro Detroiters Get Relief Remedy From Birmingham
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
Joan Sabo looked up and cringed.
She grabbed onto her husband, Robert, for support and slowly climbed the bleachers, wincing as pain shot through her arthritic knees.
As she sat down to watch her granddaughter's ice skating competition, the 73-year-old housewife from Grosse Pointe Woods breathed a sigh of relief.
For more than...
Post Polio Sufferers Try Age-Old Mineral Bath Treatments
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Anti Aging
Somehow, everything old becomes new again. Mineral bath treatment, or balneotherapy, is certainly not new. Water immersion in spas has been practiced for centuries and the practice has many believers. For thousands of years, people in Europe sought out water cures for various ailments.
Recently, patients suffering from post polio syndrome...
Product Line Brings Bath City
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
Margot's European Spa is celebrating not only 21 years at its downtown location, but also 34 minerals that are said to work miracles.
Margot's offers a new line of products called ME or Mineral Essentials, made of natural minerals drawn fr om the Mount Clemens Mineral Basin.
Margot Kohler's spa at 280...
Got a Question? Ask.
Ask the community a question about this article:
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I clear my arteries?
By: dcha12 | 22-07-2008
how can I clear my arteries?
I want larger, thicker, fuller and longer ejaculations
By: Wise Ali | 22-07-2008
How would I be able to produce a larg(er) amounts of semen during an orgasm. Is there a food or drink or exercise that I can intake or perform that increases the amount of cum I have to give?
Lice
By: nagalie | 22-07-2008
I am so grossed out, tired, and aggrivated. I need help. I need some feedback. To begin with, I'm an ultra clean person but I think I have lice. I am not sure. for a week now I have been itching like crazy but didn't find anything until today. I can never find anything at will. Nothing in the seems of my clothes. I only feel them. anyway, today I found on my arm ( think it fell from my head) what I now know looks like lice according to pictures i've seen. It had 6 legs was a transparent brown exept for the dark insides of its body. It was about the size of the period at the end of this sentence but a bit larger including it's legs...(Sooo sorry that you are getting this gross info but it's quite necessary for the process of identifying my problem.) Anyway, I am pretty sure it is lice but the question i want to ask now is what kind? If it is body lice it should be treated different from head lice I think. I know you can get rid of head lice with olive oil but body lice? Here are my symptoms... I am 90% sure I got this from my dog who was in some tall grass the other day. I saw her itching intensely but shes never had any bites before so I didnt think about it. I thought it was allergies and gave her a benedryl. THEN I started itching along with her. I know its not fleas. I don't think its scabies because my bites dont run in lines or around the webbing of my fingers. Not only that but scabies dont look like lice from what I know. Now, I can't tell if it is head or body lice because of this, they are both on my head and on my body. I even feel them in my eyelashes. I have them in my nether regions...and I've never had sex.lol I have bites that look like pimples all spread out on my legs...nether region...round my belly button, on my behind, back and neck. None on my chest or face thank God for that. But head lice are supposed to remain on the head for all I know and body lice on the body. I even feel itchy in my ears. I can barely sleep. Someone help me so I can search for a remedy pleeease. If you have a remedy for either please share it with me . Thanks
Losing weight, not friends
By: Coast-to-Coast | 21-07-2008
If I have gained weight and want to lose it what is the best way for me to find support for that? If I can't just do what I want to do because I have others to think about and have to work with them too, then how do I motivate them to get active and stop eating so much? Do you find that your weight and motivation to watch your weight varies by what you are doing? Thanks for all the good answers, I really am not sure how this works, guess I will be finding out.
Manny pacquiao next fight?
By: newsblogo | 19-07-2008
manny will should face ricky hatton or nate campbell for a big money and for a history as a legend then retire, manny should not wait that somebody will took his place as a number 1 pound for pound.
manny pacquiao next fight
How does one get information from Ezra LeMarpeh in ...
By: countrieladi1220 | 19-07-2008
How does one get information from Ezra LeMarpeh in regard to their referral sevices? If I have Parkinson's Disease, will they tell me who to go to for the latest treatment and what it is?
Q&A Powered by: 
Latest Women's Issues Articles
How to Look More Attractive
By: Amanda Duncan | 25/07/2008
Looking better doesn't have to take hours, in fact all you need are a few tips that will get your on your way.
1) Are you blushing? Blush can make anyone instantly more attractive, the flush of color to your cheeks will give you a healthy glow. With a little practice...
Beverly Hills Skin Care: Celebrated Skin Care Approaches Near Beverly Hills
By: Trevor Price | 25/07/2008
Beverly Hills skin care is about a lot more than a basic, monthly facial - the mega industry encompasses a full range of non-surgical skin care treatments like chemical facial peels, Botox treatments, microdermabrasion and laser skin rejuvenation procedures.
For more information on each of these hot five Beverly hills skin...
Baby Round the Corner? Here Are Some Decorating Ideas!
By: Mark DeRosa | 25/07/2008
Your baby is the center of your universe - and it hasn't even been born yet! You want to herald its arrival in the most unique and beautiful way! There is no better way than by decorating your front lawn with a customized stork sign.
Balloons and festivity
You can choose to...
Selecting Your Elegant Bridal Lingerie
By: Denise Sanger | 25/07/2008
You've found the perfect dress, the right bridal jewelry, and your bridal garter - so what's left? The absolutely most important piece of apparel you may ever own - that's what! So how do you go about finding your perfect bridal lingerie? Bridal lingerie is often more costly than ordinary...
The World of Wigs
By: Benedict Smythe | 24/07/2008
Being bald is becoming less and less of a problem these days. Aside from the many hair replacement and restoration options available today, people who experience baldness can opt to join the fascinating and highly creative world of wigs.
What exactly is a wig?
A wig refers to a head of hair...
Are Hair Plugs the Right Choice For You?
By: Benedict Smythe | 24/07/2008
It is estimated that two out of three men and one out of five women suffer from hair loss. It can be very depressing and most affected individuals try to cover up their balding spots with wigs and other camouflage attempts. Some use growth stimulators and hormone inhibitors. Some are...
Is My Man Cheating - Reporting Unfaithful Men
By: Jane A. Smith | 23/07/2008
Whenever you receive an anonymous call from a woman, don't panic because most probably this a way to psychologically make you doubt your husband and let uncertainty interpose between your husband and you.
Does God Really Hate Girls?
By: Stephanie Vermeulen | 22/07/2008
Does God favour men, or is this supposed preference a man-made creation?
More from Susan Gans
Product Line Brings Bath City
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
Margot's European Spa is celebrating not only 21 years at its downtown location, but also 34 minerals that are said to work miracles.
Margot's offers a new line of products called ME or Mineral Essentials, made of natural minerals drawn fr om the Mount Clemens Mineral Basin.
Margot Kohler's spa at 280...
Post Polio Sufferers Try Age-Old Mineral Bath Treatments
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Anti Aging
Somehow, everything old becomes new again. Mineral bath treatment, or balneotherapy, is certainly not new. Water immersion in spas has been practiced for centuries and the practice has many believers. For thousands of years, people in Europe sought out water cures for various ailments.
Recently, patients suffering from post polio syndrome...
Metro Detroiters Get Relief Remedy From Birmingham
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
Joan Sabo looked up and cringed.
She grabbed onto her husband, Robert, for support and slowly climbed the bleachers, wincing as pain shot through her arthritic knees.
As she sat down to watch her granddaughter's ice skating competition, the 73-year-old housewife from Grosse Pointe Woods breathed a sigh of relief.
For more than...
Spa Trends Feature More Sleep, More Green, And More Accessibility
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
In search of affordable and cutting-edge medical procedures for the faction of its cost in the United States, more and more Americans are traveling abroad to places like India or Bangkok, creating the new trend of Medical Tourism. Hotels and resorts are now in great position to offer themselves as...
Spa Glossary - A To Z
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Health
Know the difference between acupuncture and acupressure? How about Shiatsu and Watsu? The spa world is filled with a dizzying collection of terms and procedures. Following is a sample glossary, thanks to Spa Finder, to help spa-goers speak and understand the lingo with ease.
Acupressure
Used to stimulate the flow of energy...
Spa Etiquette: Know How To Tip And Strip At The Spa
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
An experience at the spa is like none other. Where else can one receive pampering services, reconnect with one's self, and emerge revitalized? Spas offer personal, hands-on services that provide endless healthful benefits. Because of their intimate nature, the spa environment can also represent an unfamiliar level of exposure to...
History Of The Me® Mineral Essentials Water
By: Susan Gans | 22/05/2008 | Women's Issues
About 600 million years ago, when the North American continent was much smaller than today, a shallow sea formed in the area that is now the Great Lakes region. The sea occupied a large basin, at times almost circular in shape, perhaps not unlike the modem Gulf of Mexico. Over...
|
|
News and Society 
