Since 1871, water from a Garland County spring has been consumed for its curative powers, resulting in a multi-million dollar business in the twenty-first century.
Arkadelphia brothers Peter and John Greene were the first to sell Mountain Valley Spring Water, building a hotel at the spring site and marketing the water as a cure for dyspepsia, dropsy, Bright’s Disease, and kidney and liver ailments.
The Mountain Valley Water Company formed in 1883 and a Philadelphia distribution center eleven years later was one of the first franchises of an American business. The water was available in the U.S. Senate by the 1920s and with distribution to California in 1928 it was the first bottled water available coast to coast.
Clinical tests in hospitals demonstrated Mountain Valley Spring Water’s benefits to liver and kidney patients and further tests defended the firm from Food and Drug Administration false-advertising allegations. The company still operates from its Hot Springs headquarters.
To learn more, visit EncyclopediaOfArkansas.net.
