Wootan Wells

The plaque tells how the water was found; the Handbook adds how the resort ran. Wootan had the water analyzed by a Navy chemist, Dr. W. Mew, before advertising it in the Bremond paper. Wade built a mile-and-a-half mule-drawn railway to the Houston and Texas Central depot for guests and bottled water. By 1890 the town held 200 year-round residents and 2,000 in summer, and James S. Hogg came with his daughters. A fifth well was closed for traces of oil. Debt, an 1899 flood and Marlin's rise as a spa drew the crowds away.

What the plaque says

Wootan Wells Famous early health spa and resort. First well was dug 1878 by landowner Francis Wootan. Water tasted good, but turned dishes yellow and clothes red. Even so, it seemed to possess amazing curative properties. Wootan soon built a hotel and in 1879 a resort town made its debut. He formed promotion company with T. W. Wade and more hotels, a bottling works, dance pavilion, and school sprang up. Leading socialites came for miles to "take the waters." Disaster struck in 1915 when fire swept the town. In 1921 the last buildings also burned. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 11 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 25 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Site of Extinct Town of Hammond — 3.0 mi
• Paul Bremond — 3.2 mi
• Bremond — 3.3 mi
• Joseph and Catherine Bartula — 3.8 mi