Waconda Spring

With the completion of the Glen Elder Dam in 1968, the mineral spring was sealed then disappeared beneath the waters of Waconda Reservoir.

[3] In 1866, surveyor David E. Ballard described it: The Spring itself is a natural curiousity [sic], it being located on the summit of a cone shaped limestone rock.

However, it is located in territory controlled by the Pawnee,[2] who knew it by the names "Pahowa" and "Kitzawitzuk", the latter translated as "water on a bank".

[2] George Bird Grinnell describes the offerings of the Pawnee as including blankets and robes, blue beads, eagle feathers, and moccasins.

[5]: 359 A geoglyph, produced by the intaglio technique of removing the surface sod to form a figure, is located on a hillside about two miles southwest of Waconda Spring.

It is thought to be several hundred years old; soil analysis indicates that it was renewed at least once after its initial excavation, suggesting that it was in use over an extended period of time.

[8] Within a few years, a man named Burnham constructed a bottling works on the site and began selling the mineral water as a health tonic.

The sales of Waconda Flier piqued the interest of an eastern investor named McWilliams, who in 1884 invested in the site and began the construction of a stone sanitarium.

The building was completed ten years later, and under the management of G. W. Cooper, Waconda Spring became a hotel and health spa.

Under both Abrahams and Bingesser, the hotel resort was improved upon and maintained a solid reputation as health spa and place of healing.

In 1944 the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers announced plans for a large earthen dam on the Solomon River near the town of Glen Elder.