Title: "Nature's Own Laboratory"

Main Text

The alleged healing powers of these mineral springs attracted many people to soak in the warm water and drink the cold tonic from the earth. These are soda springs, rich in sodium bicarbonate, known to bakers as baking soda and often prescribed as an antacid. Although you cannot soak in the springs today, you can experience them through your senses.  

Secondary Text

Listen and look for bubbles. These are bubbles of carbon dioxide gas (CO₂) being discharded from the springs. When the underground water table is low, especially in the drier seasons, fewer bubbles are seen or heard on the surface. 

Smell the occasional "rotten egg" odor of sulfur which is present when hydrogen sulfide gas (H₂S) escapes into the air. 

Look for light brown patches of barren earth. These are travertine, formed from calcium and carbonate minerals that are dissolved in the spring water and deposited on the surface. Also, look for a reddish color in the water. It occurs when iron in the water oxidizes (mixes with oxygen molecules from the air). 

CAUTION: Even though visitors drank from the cold mineral springs in the past, it is not advised today. 

As you walk the trail, look and listen. How many mineral springs can you find?

Historic Advertisement Text
This advertisement from an 1890 Tacoma newspaper promoted the Longmire's resort by advancing their claims of the mineral water's healthful benefits. Text in the advertisement reads: 

Longmire's Springs - On the Road to Mount Tahoma - A Word to the Afflicted. An Antidote for Disease, prepared in Nature's Own Laboratory. 
Longmire's Medical Springs, within easy reach of our people. 
Are now open for the public. Why go abroad when you may find Nature's own restoratives at your very doors?
The best recommendations of the wonderful curative properties of these waters is afforded by the cures performed of those afflicted with rheumatic pains, catarrah, piles and other affliction that have been pronounced incurable.
The present means of reaching the Springs from Yelm Station, on the N.P. R. R., is by gentle saddle-horses, trains of which will leave August 1st and 15th, and September 1st and 15th. 
Passage including board, for round trip, $12. Board and treatment at the Springs, $8 per week. 
Elcaine Longmire, Yelm, Wash. 
In corresponding please mention that you saw this advertisement in Every Sunday. 

Exhibit Panel Description
The main text stretches across the top of the exhibit panel on the left side against a green background. Underneath the main text, orientated at a slight angle is a copy of a historic advertisement, with text in a stylized font. On the right side of the panel is a large photo of a pool of water, its surface disturbed by numerous bubbles emerging from reddish-brown ground. The secondary text is to the left of the photo, in the center of the exhibit panel. Below the bubbling springs photo is a smaller photo showing the springs when the water is dried up, which look like patches of reddish-tan earth surrounded by green meadow grasses and reeds. The Caution text is in the lower right corner next to an exclamation mark symbol set into a yellow triangle. The final section of secondary text is set into a small grey oval in the bottom left corner of the panel. Above the text is a small graphic of a historic gas lantern lit with a soft yellow light. 

Visit This Exhibit Panel
This exhibit panel is located in Longmire along the Trail of the Shadows, a short trail that starts across the street from the National Park Inn. Longmire is open year-round.