Tom Henry, Toledo Blade

Ironically, Waukesha’s history is steeped in stories about how it was once a resort area known as “Spring City,” and the “Saratoga of the West” because of an abundance of pure spring-fed water it had in the 1800s. In 1873, a brochure featuring Col. Richard Dunbar, a diabetic, proclaimed Waukesha’s water yielded amazing health benefits. Waukesha by then was drawing so many visitors in search of the city’s so-called “healing waters” that officials had to figure out how to manage the influx.

More than 50 springs were believed to be inside the city during the 1800s, with others in surrounding Waukesha County.

“This city was a water destination,” Peter Annin, author of The Great Lakes Water Wars and co-director of Northland College’s Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, said. To read full article in the Toledo Blade.