From the time of native Indian tribes, early settlers, and pioneers such as Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and the explorer Hernando DeSoto, people have always stopped at Historic Springs to get a cold drink of water.
The water from the spring also emptied into a creek that turned a water wheel, on the French Broad River, used to grind corn. This spring was a community water source before city water became available.
During World War II, the Tennessee Valley Authority built Douglas Dam, which is located right over the hill from the Historic Springs Bottling plant. A small town was constructed there for families who worked on the dam, and the water supply for that community came from this same spring. The government built a building and reservoir to enclose and secure the flow of the spring. Water was pumped into a 50,000-gallon water tower to supply water to the workers’ homes. The water tower sat on top of a hill near the dam that is now called “The Overlook.”