Buffalo Lithia Water (later Buffalo Mineral Springs Water) was a brand of

lithia water Lithia water is defined as a type of mineral water characterized by the presence of lithium salts (such as the carbonate, chloride, or citrate of lithium). Natural lithia mineral spring waters are rare, and there are few commercially bottled lith ...

bottled in

Buffalo Lithia Springs Buffalo Springs (formerly, Buffalo Mineral Springs and Buffalo Lithia Springs) is an unincorporated community in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. It lies at an elevation of 364 feet (111 m). Located at Buffalo Springs is the Buffalo Springs Histori ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. It was advertised with outsize medical claims, including the ability to treat

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using val ...

s and

nervous disorder Anxiety disorders are a cluster of mental disorders characterized by significant and uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear such that a person's social, occupational, and personal function are significantly impaired. Anxiety may cause physi ...

s. One ad promised a "Marvelous Efficiency in Gout, Rheumatism, ndGastrointestinal Dyspepsia." It was sold from the late 19th century to the 1950s. At the height of its popularity, it was available in approximately 20,000 groceries and pharmacies in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. In 1910, the

United States Attorney for the District of Columbia The United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (USADC) is the United States Attorney responsible for representing the federal government in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the ...

filed suit against the company for misbranding and false advertising, alleging that there was too little

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid ...

in the water to qualify as a lithia water. Giving testimony in the case in 1912, a Dr.Collins testified that "for a person to obtain a therapeutic dose of lithium by drinking Buffalo Lithia Water, he would have to drink from 150,000 to 225,000 gallons of water per day." In 1917, the case was finally decided against Buffalo Lithia Water. The company was forced to change its name, rebranding itself as Buffalo Mineral Springs Water. Subsequent to the case, the company was sold. In the 1950s, the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

took possession of the property containing the original spring. During the building of the

John H. Kerr Dam John H. Kerr Dam is concrete gravity- dam located on the Roanoke River in Virginia, creating Kerr Lake. The dam was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1947 and 1953 for the purposes of flood control, and hydropower. The dam also serv ...

and the creation of

Kerr Lake Kerr Lake /kɑr/ (officially John H. Kerr Reservoir, also known as Bugg's Island Lake) is a reservoir along the border of the U.S. states of North Carolina and Virginia. It is impounded by the John H. Kerr Dam, constructed between 1947 and 1952 ...

, the grounds were flooded. The bottling business was never re-opened.

References

{{Reflist Bottled water brands Soft drinks Patent medicines Lithia water