The "Hot Springs" of Cottonwood, Alabama

The Story of Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells

by Dale Cox

Sealy's Hot Sale Mineral Well resort is seen here on a
popular postcard from the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Dreams of oil wealth vanished for Cottonwood as quickly as they had come (please see Cottonwood, Alabama: "Floating on a pool of oil"). 

The Sealy brothers, who invested tens of thousands of dollars of their own money during the craze, were nothing if not determined. They soon realized that their failed oil wells just might pay off after all.

Sealy Well No. 1 penetrated to depths of nearly 5,000 feet before the drilling was called to a halt. One of the last drill bits, however, struck something that proved almost as valuable as oil - hot water:

Nine years ago on the Sealy farm about three-fourths of a mile from Cottonwood, a well was started in search for oil. After almost four years of drilling and expenditure of about $123,000, at a depth of 4,280 feet, just as it had almost reached the top, the drill dropped and the terrific impact of its fall for almost three-fourths of a mile, broke the strata and immediately a powerful stream of hot salt mineral water gushed out and from then until now the hot salt mineral water has been pouring out at a rate of over 10,000 gallons per hour at a temperature of about 110 degrees. - (Mayor J.T. White of Cottonwood, "Oil Drill In Valley Fails But A Mineral Spring Is Result," Columbus Daily-Enquirer, February 13, 1937.)

A small stream of hot water flows from the former resort
grounds and under Sealy Wells Road in Cottonwood.

The artesian well or "hot spring" created a stream of water that flowed off into low spot that soon became a lake. Members of Cottonwood's African American community were the first to test the curative powers of the water. Like most Americans of the early 20th-century, they believed that hot mineral water could cure a variety of illnesses.

One man found relief from rheumatism after bathing in the water. Not long after it was noticed that a dog with the mange cured itself by swimming in the lake. This led another to dig a hole deep enough for his ailing mule to enter and soak itself. The mule was cured of sores and lameness.

These early experiments generated considerable excitement in Cottonwood and prompted a local man named Pete Lambert to see if the water could cure his broken leg. Lambert was driving a mule-team when his leg was broken in an accident. Doctors were preparing to amputate the unhealed limb, but he tried bathing in the lake for 27 straight days. The broken bones healed.

As Mayor J.T. White of Cottonwood reported in 1937, the hot spring suddenly became a sensation:

The hot water pool at Sealy Springs was a popular part of
from the days of its creation in the 1930s.
Alabama Department of Archives and History

The news of the cures began to spread. The Sealy's had the water analyzed and found it contained six valuable mineral elements, some not found in any other hot water wells or springs in America. Then it was discovered that taken internally the water was beneficial for ulcerated stomach, kidney diseases and liver complaints; and still later that catarrh [i.e., mucus buildup in the nose or throat] would be cured by snuffing the water into the nostrils and taking the baths. - Ibid.

The brothers J.R. Sealy and C.S. Sealy realized the potential of their accidental discovery. In the spring of 1936, they started building a resort around their "hot mineral well" that included 55 hotel rooms, cottages, apartments, a large assembly area, and dining rooms. Visitors could "take the waters" in 32 rooms with baths built for that purpose as well as in a 50x100 foot swimming pool. 

So many people came - more than 10,000 in 1936-1937 - that almost the entire town of Cottonwood "was turned into a big rooming house to care for the overflow of people who came for bathing and treatment in the healing waters of the well."

The resort was a stunning success. By 1938 its fame had spread across the nation, and even hotels in Panama City were advertising the fact that they were only 90-minutes from Cottonwood, Alabama:

The gates to the Sealy Hot Salt Mineral Wells resort
still retain a touch of their original splendor.

Cottonwood, Alabama, "the Hot Springs of the Southeast," has become famous the nation over within a comparatively short period of time for its hot salt mineral springs, the healing properties of whose waters are declared to have been beneficial to a great number of people. - (Columbus Daily Enquirer, March 27, 1938.)

Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells or Sealy Springs rivaled similar destinations by the eve of World War II. Many who had previously gone to Hot Springs, Arkansas, or Warm Springs, Georgia, came to Cottonwood instead. Even President Franklin Roosevelt expressed interest in the resort.

Campgrounds with trailer hookups were added, and the resort advertised activities and amenities for visitors to enjoy when not taking the baths. Guided quail and fox hunting expeditions became a significant part of life at Sealy Springs, with the Sealy brothers acquiring access to 43,000 acres of hunting lands.

Visitors came by the thousands. Some arrived by car from Dothan, Panama City, and other points. Others came in the comfort of passenger cars on the AF&G Railroad, which connected the town of Cowarts near Dothan with Malone and Greenwood in Northwest Florida. The doctors and nurses on staff helped those paralyzed from polio as well as sufferers of arthritis, injuries, muscular diseases, and even the measles. Most left convinced that the hot mineral waters had helped them.

Nature has reclaimed the surviving structures of the resort.

The final years before World War II marked the peak of the resort's success. And then Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The country mobilized for war and trips to resorts like Sealy's Hot Mineral Wells became luxuries in which few indulged. The post-war years did not bring back Cottonwood's glory days. The central administration building of the resort was destroyed by fire in 1947, but there were no injuries as "few guests were registered."

Sealy Springs finally closed as a resort, and the facility later went through uncertain times when a much-investigated medical clinic opened there. Comedian Dick Gregory was also reportedly in negotiations to develop the site as a diet clinic in the late 1980s. A 2001 fire ended the resort's 65-year history, however, by destroying the main facilities.

The site of the hot springs is overgrown and all but forgotten today. An iron gate, dilapidated fence, and a few surviving structures are all that remain as reminders of its fascinating history.

The hot water still flows, filling the warm water lake on the grounds and then flowing away down a creek to eventually make its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Editor's Note: The grounds of the hot springs can be viewed from Sealy Wells Road at its intersection with Joe Cook Street in Cottonwood, Alabama. The site is private property and is closed to the public so please view from the right-of-way and do not trespass.