The lost resort: The story of Crystal Springs, its hotels and water cures, Yates County, New York [Paperback]

Lucile Peterson Macera (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Heart of the Lakes Pub (1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557870985
• ISBN-13: 978-1557870988
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,799,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am the author's daughter...., August 20, 2000

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No such thing as too many books! (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The lost resort: The story of Crystal Springs, its hotels and water cures, Yates County, New York (Paperback)

Description from back cover: "In the fall of 1939, a young hunter and his two companions were roaming the overgrown fields about five miles southwest of Dundee, between Seneca Lake and Keuka Lake in Yates County, New York, when one of them stumbled upon a mystery that led him a merrier chase than any rabbit ever could. Entering a semi-circular clearing with the intention of looking for rabbits in a nearby wooded area along Big Stream, the hunter suddenly noticed a peculiar odor. Literally following his nose for about twenty feet to the bank of the creek, he saw a rusty pipe thrusting above mats of tangled weeds in an otherwise isolated area. Since the pipe was emitting a stream of sparkling water, the hunter called his friends so they could all refresh themselves. Using their hands as cups, they tried to drink the water, spit it out, and wondered if they had been poisoned. Far from slaking the young man's thirst, the water only whet his curiosity. Why did it tast and smell so strange? And why was it flowing from a rusty pipe in the middle of nowhere? The curious young hunter was Merlyn ("Bud") Wheeler, Jr., who had lived most of his life near Dundee. Between that fall of 1939 and 1943, Bud pursued the older residents of the area until he found at least six who were able to help solve the mystery. The help came primarily in the form of old-fashioned glass plate negatives and stereoscopic photos that provided visual evidence of a resort and sanitarium that had developed around a mineral spring accidentally discovered in 1864. Because Bud was working as a commercial photographer, he had the expertise to reproduce from the old glass negatives and stereoscopic photos an extensive pictorial history of a once popular, but lost resort--Crystal Springs. After 1942, the demands of marriage, World War II, and supporting a family kept Bud too busy to pursue his interest in what turned out to be a whole village that had completely disappeared except for a rusty pipe. But his interest did continue, and he carefully accumulated any information that came his way. In 1977, Bud turned over his substantial collection of Crystal Springs photos and other material to the Dundee Area Historical Society. The Society's director, Shirley Knox VanDyne, joined the search for more details and verification of an era in the vicinity's history that was little known to current residents. Since it is unlikely that any individuals with firsthand knowledge of Crystal Springs still live, it is fairly certain that, had Bud Wheeler and Shirley VanDyne not collected these materials when they did, much of the history of Crystal Springs would have been lost forever. The three authors have shared a desire to preserve the photographic and material evidence that Crystal Springs did once exist. Their aim in this book has been to document as fully and accurately as possible a colorful cross-section of Yates County history that will be useful to historians and of interest to present and future residents of Yates County and neighboring counties. The authors hope that you, the reader, will soon find yourself transported over the portals of Chapter 1 into an exciting time in the history of Yates County, New York."

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HELLO MY NAME IS JEAN-PAUL MACERA, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The lost resort: The story of Crystal Springs, its hotels and water cures, Yates County, New York (Paperback)

I NEVER READ THIS BOOK BUT I SUPPOSE IT WILL BE NICE BECAUSE I HAVE A POOR ENGLISH BUT I READ JANE AUSTEN IN FRENCH I LOVE SO MUCH I 'LLL IKE TO SPEAK TO L P MACERA IF YOU HAVE TIME I SEND MY ADREES