Red Boiling Springs developed around the salt licks that gave Salt Lick Creek its name, where buffalo and other animals came to lick salt from the ground and followed paths that later became the Big Barren Buffalo Road, the Tahlonteeksee Trail, and the Cumberland Trace. Native Americans used these same routes in search of game, and pioneer settlers followed them into previously unexplored territory. A Cherokee village once stood in what is now downtown Red Boiling Springs, and the last known Cherokee chief there was Chief Katawley. Long hunter Edmund Jennings came upon the area, and news of it spread, drawing settlers into the region. Shepard Wright Kirby and his sister Susanna Kirby Goad discovered the healing properties of the area's mineral waters, identified from strongest to mildest as double and twist, white, black, red, and freestone. During the Civil War, the only hotel, the Bledsoe, a row of cabins, served as an enlistment center and later as a hospital, while both Union and Confederate troops moved through the region. The fame of the healing mineral waters attracted investors who built a thriving resort town with nine hotels and twelve boarding houses filled to capacity, along with attractions that included a shooting gallery, bowling, skating, croquet, tennis, dancing, music, swimming, canoeing, fishing, golfing, and horseback riding. The town's popularity declined after World War II with the rise of modern medicine, the automobile, and better roads, but Red Boiling Springs remained known for its hotels, baths, massages, mineral waters, food, peaceful setting, scenic parks, walking quilt trail, heritage museum, and enduring appeal as a place of history and relaxation.