Boiling Springs by all rights should have been named Boiling Spring. There's only one, and it used to be deep and boiling. People came from all over to see the pure water shoot six feet into the air, and the roar of the geyser could be heard from a quarter-mile away.

By 1765, there were farmers living in the area, and by the 1780's, two churches had been established. According to early account, Boiling Springs received much consideration as a location for the county seat before Spartanburg was chosen. The textile industry forever changed many communities of Spartanburg County, but Boiling Springs stayed true to its pastoral roots - with peaches becoming a source of income in the early 1900s. Mills Gap Road, later rechristened S.C. Highway 9, became a major thoroughfare from the more southern part of the county to North Carolina. In the early 1930s, after community pressure built, the road was paved and eased travel.

Businesses grew up around Highway 9, with general merchandiser P.D.'s Place at the corner of Highway 9 and Parris Bridge Road becoming a landmark. Otis J. Cantrell's Mercantile was a longstanding store located beside the spring.

Recreation has played a major role in Boiling Springs during the 20th century and beyond. Rainbow Lake, north of the city, was a popular resort. Local officials refused to bow to integration and closed the facility in 1967. Lake William C. Bowen was completed as a water source and recreational facility in 1960. Lakes Bowen and Black, also north of Boiling Springs, provided the impetus for recent upscale housing developments that have greatly spurred growth in the community.

As for the spring, its glory days are over. By the 1930s, it had become a shallow, barely bubbling dimple of water. Development encroached on the spring in the late 1990s. In 1998, the spring's surroundings were landscaped and an enclosure built around it's opening. Today, the once-frothing water is still.

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Compiled 2005 by Susan Thoms