Long before tourists stuck their cups under the flowing fountains in Manitou Springs, American Indians proclaimed the area and its bubbly waters a place of peace.

Indeed, if opposing tribes happened upon the natural springs at the same time, it was understood there would be no warfare.

The water also was good for their bodies, as their diet consisted heavily of wild game.

“Eat a lot of that and your digestive system needs help,” said Dave Wolverton, former head of the Mineral Springs Foundation, a nonprofit that seeks to protect the waters. “Mineral springs are highly alkaline so (the water) neutralized all that acetic meat they were eating.”

Following the American Indians were fur traders, trappers and gold seekers, who also believed in the curative powers of the minerals. They developed health regimens and treated illnesses such as tuberculosis by drinking the water and soaking in it. Hotels quickly emerged in the area, many boasting their own wells.

“It was a fashionable thing to drill your own well and have your own baths in your hotel so people could come and spend a week or two,” Wolverton said.

When the pharmaceutical industry ramped up in the 1930s, the healing waters fell out of fashion, as Americans began taking pills for what ailed them. But many still see the value in ingesting the effervescent, salty and metallic waters.

“We take vitamin supplements, and you can get that basically out of the mineral springs,” Wolverton said. “You’ll see runners do the Manitou Incline, come down and stop at Twin Spring. After you’ve run that, all your muscles are acetic. And what’s the fastest way to recover muscle fatigue? Alkaline water.”

Dotted across the landscape are eight springs of alkaline water that never run dry. At least not yet, says Wolverton: “I’m never going to say never.”

Unbeknownst to thousands of tourists who stroll the streets every summer is the cave system that lies below. The caves are filled with water thanks to the karst aquifer, a naturally occurring cavernous basin. This aquifer’s water, which rises through the Rampart Range and Ute Pass faults, mixes with surface water from the Williams Canyon and Fountain Creek watershed basins and becomes infused with minerals. The carbon dioxide rising from the faults blends with the spring water, and it becomes bubbly. That natural carbonation forces the water to the surface through cracks in the rocks.