The earliest known containers used for Buffalo Lithia Water were half-gallon, common green bottles with cork stoppers.  The embossed picture of a woman with a pitcher (see below) was part of the registered trademark.  During the late 1920s or early 1930s (before the change to paper labels) the company made a slight alteration in the name to Buffalo Mineral Water.  By the 1930s, black and white paper labels were affixed to otherwise undecorated bottles, along with a change to continuous thread (screw top) caps.  By this time most of the bottles were colorless, although some of the common green containers persisted (Abbott et al 1997:52).  Buffalo Mineral Springs Water bottles were identical except for the name and size.  Because of hand completion of the finish in the two-piece mold process, bottle heights varied (cf. Blumenstein 1973:52-53; Colcleaser 1966:43; Klamkin 1971:144).  Bottles used in El Paso were cork-stoppered with the name, Buffalo Lithia Water. 

     Carlo & Dorothy Sellari added an interesting note about Lithia Waters: 

 Following the Civil War, at a time when sales of mineral water began to drop, excessive boasts began to appear that lithium, an alkali metal supposedly with healing properties, was in the water.  An investigation after the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1907 found only infinitesimal traces of lithium in bottled water.  "Lithia Water" abruptly disappeared from bottle labels (Sellari & Sellari 1989:84). 

     The Sellaris (1989:28), however, noted that Spring No. 2 "was the only spring at Buffalo that contained significant amounts of lithia, considered a rare and valuable ingredient in mineral springs."  According to the Ferraros, the same report claimed that "in order to receive an effective therapeutic dosage of lithium in BUFFALO LITHIA SPRINGS WATER the patient would have to drink 200,000 gallons of the water!" (Ferraro & Ferraro 1966:51).

     Like the waters described above, I have been unable to find local examples of Clysmic "King of Table Waters."  Kendrick (1963:78), however, depicts the base and partial body of a Clysmic bottle in her demonstration of the distinctive Owns Ring.  The bottle contains the word, CLYSMIC, embossed on the base, but the portion shown has no marking on the body itself.  It seems clear that the product was solely marked with a paper label, leaving only the base as an identifyer in most archaeological contexts.

      Two "bowling pin" style bottles have been offered on eBay.  Both are made from different shdes of green glass and are topped by a crown finish.  Each has a slightly different style of embossing on the base.

      At least two Clysmic trays also have been offered on eBay.  One is labeled clockwise around the inside Clysmic (logo) King of Table Waters, Cheinco Housewares (logo), Clysmic (logo), King of Table Waters. Both trays show a scantily-clad lady posed next to a stag.  The lady holds a gigantic bottle of Clysmic.
 
 

eBay 2001	eBay 2001

eBay 2001	eBay 2001

eBay 2001	eBay 2001

     The first non-Native American to see the waters that would become Manitou Springs was Lieutenant George Fredercik Ruxton in 1847.  Both Indians and Whites visited the springs until "Uncle Dick" Wooten built a cabin near Soda Spring in 1859.  The town of La Font was laid out in 1871, but the name was changed to Manitou a year later.  The springs were very popular, and, by the 1880s, Manitou was known as the "Saratoga of the West" (Daniels & McConnell [1964] 1973:7-15, 22). 

     The Manitou Mineral Water Co. built a bottling plant at Navajo Spring in 1872 and became noted for its Manitou Ginger Champagne.  Between July and December of 1886, the plant sold 70,000 bottles of water.  Business was so good that a glass factory was built in Colorado City to supply the bottling plant (Daniels & McConnell [1964] 1973:32-34).  The Colorado City Glass Co. was incorporated in 1889 and employed 26 men.  Glass laborers worked in two shifts to produce about 14,000 daily.  A disastrous fire struck the plant in September 1892, but J. B. Wheeler, the principal stockholder of the company, had a new plant rebuilt and in operation by May 1893, but the operation failed later that year due to the great 1893 depression (Clint 1976:41).

     A new plant was built in 1889 with a 20,000 quart per day output capacity.  Manitou Mineral Water Co. was sold about 1913, but the new owner was unpopular with the only man who knew the process used for making Manitou Ginger Champagne. As a result, the product was removed from the market, although the effervescent water, bottled only with natural gas from the springs, continued to be sold (Daniels & McConnell [1964] 1973:32-34).  It is unknown when bottling operations ceased.

     Along with the embossed bottles described below, Manitou sold Ginger Champagne in bottles with paper labels on both body and neck/shoulder.  The body labels bore a drawing of an Indian above ORIGINAL/MANITOU/GINGER CHAMPAGNE/PALE DRY (Prebble 1987:46). When the company switched from embossed to paper labels is unknown.  Some of the cork-stoppered bottles were topped a porcelain caps that identified the product inside.
 

     Manitou Springs is still in operation today, mostly as a tourist Mecca with gift and craft shops, natural sites (e.g. Seven Falls), and a set of Anasazi Cliff Dwellings that were removed from their prehistoric setting and relocated near the town.  Although bottling has long ceased, the five original springs and five additional drilled springs are still available to tourists and local citizens who fill plastic jugs at the various locations throughout the town.  Each spring has a slightly (and sometimes distinctly) different taste.