In the early 20th century, Garrett County combined two of its natural resources to come up with a product that had people’s tongues wagging.
Known for its clear mountain spring water, someone decided to add ginger to create locally sourced ginger ale.
Col. George Truesdell was well-known in Washington, D.C., for his land acquisitions and developing neighborhoods. He came to Garrett County at the turn of the 20th century and began buying land between Altamont and Deer Park, including the Altamont Springs at the foot of Backbone Mountain.
He used the land to raise sheep that were shipped as far away as South Africa. However, he also built a modern bottling works alongside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line. The spring water was piped to the plant where it was bottled “and shipped by the carload to a large department store in Washington where it was sold to the public under the name “Altamont Springs Water,” according to Western Maryland’s Historical Library, whilbr.org.
According to the Congressional Series Set, Maryland had seven commercial springs in the early years of the 20th century. They produced around 1 million gallons of mineral water annually, with 20% of that amount being sold for medicinal purposes. The average retail price per gallon was 11 cents. This inexpensive price is one of the reasons that it was hard for a business to turn a profit. To supplement water sales, four of the springs had resorts near them, and water at two of the Maryland springs were also used for bathing purposes that were not included in the tallies.
The difficulty in turning a profit also hit Altamont Springs and Truesdell.
“It is said that he not only realized no profit from the enterprise but on the contrary voluntarily absorbed a large annual deficit rather than close down the plant,” according to whilbr.org.
After Truesdell died in 1921, the plant was shut down and the property sold to R.A. Smith and John Shore of Blaine and Kitzmiller.
Then in 1925, some businessmen from Wheeling, West Virginia, came to town and saw the potential that Truesdell had seen in the springs, and they believed that they had a plan to make it profitable.
They purchased, “the bottling plant erected by Col. Truesdell, several acres of land, the springs which were extensively advertised by Col. Truesdell in various parts of the country, as also all of the equipment, pipeline rights, etc., necessary for the operation of the plant, it being the intention to manufacture and place on the market a high grade ginger ale and also to bottle and ship for table and general use water from the famous springs,” reported The Republican.
Besides water, the other main ingredient in ginger ale is ginger, of which Garrett County also has a good supply. The drink had been around for about 30 years at this point. It was not only a favorite drink, but some people used it for medicinal reasons, such as fighting digestion and motion sickness.
The new company was incorporated and new machinery was installed to replace the outdated equipment in the bottling plant. The first meeting of the Altamont Spring Corporation board of directors was held in Deer Park in January 1926.
“Already a considerable amount of the Altamont Springs Ginger Ale has been shipped to a number of nearby towns and cities, and wherever it has been placed the same has met with much popularity because of the high grade product and purity of the water used in its manufacture,” The Republican reported.
However, despite their best efforts, this company also failed within a few years.
Altamont Springs water bottles, if you can find them, are collector’s items.