Take A Weekend Trip To Mineral Wells, Texas, Home Of Famed Healing Waters

This revitalizing small town is full of history and just far enough away from city life.

Located just an hour’s drive from Fort Worth, Mineral Wells is a small Texas town with plenty of history and a fair share of local lore. While today you can take advantage of outdoor recreation, a walkable downtown, a thriving community, and much more, it was once known for one thing: its healing waters. Stories of Mineral Wells’ “miracle” waters brought tourists from around the world in the early part of the 20th century. Bathhouses, drinking pavilions, and spas opened to allow visitors to experience it for themselves, and a bottled water company, Crazy Water, stemming back to 1904 is still in operation today.

“At one time Mineral Wells was one of the biggest draws in the country for health and wellness,” says Rose Jordan, director of tourism for the city. “The water was known to be magical and able to heal whatever ailed you.”

For those wanting to check out the historic waters for themselves, a trip to Mineral Wells awaits with many things to do, places to stay, and local restaurants to cap off your stay.

Where To Stay

Crazy Water Hotel

Built in 1912, the Crazy Water Hotel burned in 1925 but was reconstructed two years later. It operated as a hotel, then a hospital and finally an assisted living center until it closed in 2013. Five years ago, a group of local investors teamed up to restore it, and the hotel reopened in 2021.

The original terrazzo floors click under my heals and I’m enthralled by the tilework made by famed tilemaker Ernest Batchelder around the old water pavilion, which today serves as a coffee bar. Plans call for reopening the onsite spa, adding a speakeasy, and restoring the old manual bowling alley. At one point more than 100 wells pumped the slightly odiferous water out of the ground around Mineral Wells. But the well that was dug at the site of the Crazy Hotel in 1881 was the most famous. According to local lore, a woman who had suffered dementia began drinking the liquid. Eventually she was cured, and voila, Crazy Water was born.

Baker Hotel & Spa - Under Renovation

Inside the lobby of the Baker Hotel & Spa in Mineral Wells, where paint peels from the walls and dust hangs in the air, I can almost hear the distant echo of big band tunes. This grand old hotel opened in 1929, at the peak of the city’s heyday as a wellness destination. Visitors came to soak in its healing mineral waters and enjoy a little luxury. But when nearby Fort Wolters closed in 1973, the hotel shuttered, tourism dried up and the water faded from memory.

The Baker stood empty for nearly 50 years, until investors bought it and launched a remodel. When it reopens, it will mark one of the last steps in a remarkable turnaround for this city of 16,000 that is just an hour’s drive west of Fort Worth.

Mark Rawlings, general partner and head of construction for the Baker, first saw the abandoned hotel in 2008, when he drove out to see if he wanted to take part in a renovation of the 14-story Spanish Colonial Revival tower with 165 guest rooms and crumbling mineral baths.“She was a toothless wonder,” Rawlings says. Her windows were broken, and owls, skunks, and ringtail cats had taken up residence. He accepted the challenge, and crews hauled off 900 dumpsters filled with trash.

My husband and I don hard helmets for a tour that takes us from the lobby to the kitchen and into the old spa, where Rawlings shows us rusted soaking tanks, yellowed brochures, and light fixtures. Lawrence Welk reportedly got his start on a stage here and Three Stooges appeared regularly. “We’re bringing her back to her former grandeur,” Rawlings says of the $100-million project.

Best Things To Do

Shop Downtown

The city’s revival coincided with a downtown marketplace that opened in 2018 as a business incubator for fledgling retail shops. In all, more than 40 buildings have been renovated. “Now when people are driving through, they have a reason to stop,” Jordan says. Visitors can take in murals painted on buildings downtown, tour the collection of muscle cars at Blue Oval Car Barn, and pose for photos under the huge red and green Crazy sign that spans one street.

Tour the Clark Gardens

At nearby Clark Gardens they can explore 50 acres of well-tended gardens, and at the National Vietnam War Museum they can learn about the helicopter pilots who trained at Fort Wolters. Visitors to Mineral Wells Fossil Park can keep trilobites, sea flowers and the occasional shark’s tooth that they find.

Visit a State Park

Fancy hotels and restaurants aren’t the only reason to come to Mineral Wells. The city is known for nearby parks, lakes, and a river. We made the 15-minute drive to Lake Mineral Wells State Park & Trailway. Highlights? Hiking into Penitentiary Hollow to watch the rock climbers, and hiking into a ravine alongside the lake. Rental kayaks are available, camping is an option, and cyclists and equestrians can log 20 miles on an adjacent trailway, which connects downtown Mineral Wells to Cartwright Park near Weatherford.

Try the Local Water

Just down the street from the Crazy Water Hotel, the Famous Mineral Water Company, founded in 1904, still bottles water sourced from three local wells. It’s rich in calcium, magnesium, and potassium, and available in four levels of minerality. “We were built on the waters,” Jordan says. “And we’ve taken back our roots.” The company also operates a bath house you can visit to take a dip into the healing waters.

Where To Eat

For food, don’t miss the brand new Second Bar + Kitchen, a satellite location of the Austin-based restaurant on Congress Avenue. Noted Chef David Bull, the whisk-wielding culinary brains behind the Driskill Grill and later Congress in Austin, directs the kitchen. He does a fine job, too, if the short ribs I ate are any indication.

Other places to try? Rickhouse Brewing, a brewpub located in the lobby of the Crazy Water Hotel, and Natty Flat Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, where campfire tacos combine shredded brisket and baked 'tater salad.

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