[4] It is located approximately 30 miles (48 km) northeast of central Kansas City, Missouri.

[5] The 2020 United States census[7] counted 10,553 people, 4,083 households, and 2,784 families in Excelsior Springs.

[10] Near two forks of Fishing River, a terrible fight was about to start when a severe thunderstorm rolled in suddenly and put the mob to flight.

[12] The spring was accidentally discovered in 1880 by a Black farmer, Travis Mellion, when his daughter Opal fell ill with scrofula, a form of cervical tuberculosis.

[13][14] He asked for advice from nearby campers, and they suggested the spring that oozed from the bank of the Fishing River.

Water was brought to his daughter and in a few weeks, her health improved noticeably, and she eventually recovered.

A log-cabin farmer, Frederick Kugler, also begin to treat his rheumatic knees and a recurring sore from a Civil War wound, and he soon recovered.

John Van Buren Flack traveled there in 1880 after hearing about the medicinal values of the spring water.

Flack built a home on a 40-acre (160,000 m2) tract that Wyman had platted and opened the town's first dry goods store and the first church.

The springs proved successful and brought many new people to the area, who camped out in tents or in covered wagons.

A pump was installed at the Siloam Spring, and steps from Broadway Street and the city's first hotel, the Excelsior, were constructed.

Soon a small wooden bridge was built over the Fishing River to an undeveloped peninsula used for visitors to relax while exploring the spring.

The Excelsior opened on March 1, 1881, and quickly filled with many visitors seeking the medicinal waters, including from St. Louis, St. Joseph, Kansas City, and Leavenworth.

By this time, the Relief Springs and Land Company had been formed primarily to advertise and pique the interest of outsiders.

The Music Hall, a state-of-the-art theater for the time, was built nearby with a seating capacity of 1,320 people.

Partnered with the Milwaukee Railroad, the city began to advertise their resort status nationwide.

[citation needed] Other minerals found in the springs were Saline-Sulphur, Soda-Bicarbonate, and Calcic-Bicarbonate (also known as Lithia).

The city received international attention in 1893 at the Chicago's World Fair when medals were awarded for the iron-manganese water from the Regent Spring and Soterian ginger ale.

[citation needed] In October 1893, more train service was installed with the opening of the Sulpho-Saline route connecting to the Wabash Railroad.

[citation needed] The Great Depression did not have the impact on Excelsior Springs as it had on several other communities, surviving mostly due to its health resort status.

In 1932, Mafia gangster Lonnie Affronti shot Azalea Ross and her husband in an ambush shoot-out on Route 10.

One of his accomplices during the shootout, Charley Harvey, was apprehended and killed himself in the city jail a short time later.

The local newspaper recorded many well-known names of the present time, including Hollywood B-movie actress Evalyn Knapp, artist Thomas Hart Benton, and author Homer Croy.

The first floor contained the women's bath department, sunroom, covered porch, grand foyer, management office for the springs, and the chamber of commerce.

In the south wing were the special hydrotherapy departments devoted to research for the waters' medicinal values.

[citation needed] On Election Day 1948, Harry S. Truman spent the night at the Elms Hotel when it appeared that he was losing his re-election bid to Republican Thomas E. Dewey.

He later was photographed at Union Station in St. Louis holding a copy of the Chicago Tribune that famously mistakenly proclaimed "Dewey Defeats Truman".

[20][21] The late 1950s and early 1960s were difficult for the city due to the severe decline in popularity of the resort spa town.

By 1967, the bottling operations had lost $25,000, and the city decided it was time to put its mineral water history behind and move forward.

In 1974, the National Civic League selected Excelsior Springs as an All-America City, reinvigorating this small town somewhat.