HOT SPRINGS -- Mountain Valley Spring Co. LLC has acquired the property formerly known as Fountain Lake Resort, a popular recreational area north of Hot Springs from 1933 to 1949.
The bottling company made the $1.4 million purchase, according to a deed filed June 6 with the Garland County circuit clerk's office, with the intent of tapping the clear water spring on the more than 130-acre property. The Park Avenue entrance to the property is still marked by the white stucco archway that began beckoning patrons in search of summer fun more than 70 years ago.
"The site has an abundant spring source which could eventually be used," Charles Brown, Mountain Valley's chief financial officer, said in an email.
According to information from the Garland County Historical Society, Sure Value Stamp, a division of Affiliated Foods, purchased the property in 1993 and produced bottled water from artesian wells on the site.
Mountain Valley's flagship brand, Mountain Valley Spring Water, has been sourced from the Lockett Spring near the company's bottling plant off West Glazypeau Road since 1871.
Kaitlin White, the company's marketing manager, said springs elsewhere, including one sourced by a Mountain Valley subsidiary on a large tract the company owns between Jessieville and Hot Springs Village, are used by other brands under the company's umbrella.
The historical society said the resort's pool was formed from the damming of a creek crossing the property. William Lerz's "Old Times at Fountain Lake," an account of the property's halcyon days during the 1930s and '40s he wrote for the historical society in 2000, describes an idyllic family atmosphere by day -- replete with diving boards, slides and paddleboats -- and a rollicking adolescent hangout by night, when the island dance pavilion became the main attraction.
"One cannot forget the music wafting across the water by the jukebox, wonderful songs of the big band era," Lerz wrote. "Something about that sound coming across the water will never be duplicated. It cost a nickel to play the jukebox. Beer, at 10 cents for Falstaff and 15 cents for premium brands, such as Schlitz and Pabst, was sold to anyone of any age who had the money."
The property came into its own after H.D. Ferguson purchased it in 1933, Lerz wrote. He made many improvements, including the construction of a tavern, before selling it to the Welchman family in 1945. They sold it in 1949 after it became apparent the new Little Rock highway would bypass the resort, according to information from the historical society.
The property was closed to the public after a fire in 1953. Several developments were planned but never realized. Lerz wrote that proposals ranged from a boys ranch and then a country club featuring a 40-unit motel, large clubhouse and lighted five-hole golf course in the 1950s, to a Lutheran retirement village in the 1960s.
According to property records, Jerold and Barbara Brock of Greenbrier acquired it in 2014 and sold it to Mountain Valley earlier this month.
Metro on 06/24/2018