In 1883, according to well-accepted tradition, Willie Barker discovered the Healing Spring while helping his father, Eli Barker, plow corn and searching a branch for drinking water; Willie later recalled finding cold water running down a rock, bringing it to his father, and then seeing sores from poison oak on both of their hands and arms improve rapidly after contact with the water. Reports from the Barker family, including Eli Barker’s account that drinking the water restored his own health and that it benefited his daughter, spread the spring’s fame and drew many people seeking relief for human and livestock ailments. Crowds gathered there for both drinking and religious meetings, but conflicts arose when rowdy visitors interrupted prayers and fights broke out. In 1888, Captain C.V. Thompson of Saltville, Virginia, who had come to use the water for his limp, bought the property, enclosed the spring, and kept it private despite protests; when a mob tried to force entry, he stood guard with a rifle and dispersed them. That same year he renamed it Thompson Bromine and Arsenic Springs and developed it into a health spa with a hotel and restaurant, while an octagonal gazebo was built over the spring in 1889, a road connected it to Marion, Virginia, and bottled water sales and national advertising made Thompson Spring Water widely demanded. Eight cabins were built to handle overflow guests, and Thompson and his wife, Pamela J., successfully operated the hotel, spa, and water business; the hotel accommodated 75 guests and operated from May 1st to November 1st. A 1907 North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey reported the resort’s capacity as 75 guests and listed no other springs in Ashe County, and sale of the spring water continued until 1946. On August 25, 1962, a fire destroyed the Healing Springs Hotel in about sixty minutes, leaving only the original concrete steps, while the cabins survived undamaged and the spring remained untouched. In 2014, new owners revived the site, preserved the spring and grounds, renovated the historic cabins, and added a farm store. More than 100 years after the spring’s discovery, tradition still holds that its mineral water has curative powers, and the water is offered free to visitors.