Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee
| Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee | |
|---|---|
| City | |
City Hall
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 Location of RedBoilingSprings, TN |
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| Coordinates: 36°31′57″N 85°50′59″W / 36.53250°N 85.84972°WCoordinates: 36°31′57″N 85°50′59″W / 36.53250°N 85.84972°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Tennessee |
| County | Macon |
| Established | 1820s |
| Incorporated | 1953 |
| Named for | Area mineral springs |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1.4 sq mi (3.7 km2) |
| • Land | 1.4 sq mi (3.7 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2) |
| Elevation | 771 ft (235 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 1,112 |
| • Density | 719.8/sq mi (277.9/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 37150 |
| Area code(s) | 615 |
| FIPS code | 47-62000 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1299039 |
| Website | www.redboilingspringstn.com |
Red Boiling Springs is a city in Macon County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,023 at the 2000 census.
The area was originally known as Salt Lick Creek due to a salt lick that was located nearby, approximately four miles northwest of current day Red Boiling Springs. The salt lick attracted animals, and, in turn, attracted Native Americans as well as other peoples. Among the people who came to hunt the animal trails was Daniel Boone, who reportedly carved his name and the year, 1775, into a beech tree in a nearby community.
The area was first surveyed and land grants were first awarded in the mid-1780s. The first post office was established in 1829 and was named the Salt Lick Creek post office. In 1847, the post office was renamed "Red Boiling Springs." Sometime in the 1830s, a farmer named Jesse Jones noticed red-colored sulphur water bubbling up from springs on his farm. In 1844, a businessman named Samuel Hare, realizing the springs' commercial potential, purchased a 20-acre (8.1 ha) plot of the Jones farm surrounding the springs, and constructed an inn. The inn's remote location and the region's poor roads likely doomed the venture, however, and the inn was gone by the 1870s.
In 1873, a stagecoach line was established between Red Boiling Springs and Gallatin, where there was a railroad stop. This likely led to renewed commercial interest in the springs, and by 1876, a general store owner named James Bennett had purchased the springs tract and had built a hotel. Bennett's hotel consisted of a row of log cabins flanking a central frame dining hall. In the late 1870s, Nashville newspapers first started mentioning Bennett's hotel and its guests' activities, as it was vogue during the Gilded Age for newspapers to report on daily happenings at upper class and upper-middle class resorts.
The 1880s saw a boom in the development of mineral springs resorts as "summer getaways," due in part to the publicity received by places such as Saratoga Springs in New York. During this decade, New York businessman James F. O. Shaugnesy purchased the Red Boiling Springs tract and began development of the area as a resort. In 1889, the town first made the Nashville newspapers' front pages when former Tennessee Governor John C. Brown died of a hemorrhage at one of the hotels. The papers emphasized that due to the isolation of the town and a lack of a telephone or telegraph, there was no way to get help. During the following decade, a railroad line was extended to Hartsville, and the railroad established a stagecoach line to Red Boiling Springs. With the continued rise in the number of visitors, two local general store owners— Zack and Clay Cloyd— opened the Cloyd Hotel during this period.
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