Judy Sudomir tasted the water trickling from a natural stone outcropping at Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County and tried to describe its unusual metallic taste. “It tastes a little irony, but fresh,” said the Canton, Ohio, woman, who was in the park camping with her husband, Bob, and their beagle, Etta. The heavy iron content in the water has left streaks of rust from the four outlets of natural mineral springs that once centered a resort that flourished more than 100 years ago. Still, anyone who wishes to learn more of the resort, which boasted a hotel, dance hall, livery stable and guest cottages, can either visit the site or tune into a new documentary film by amateur Moon filmmaker Ronald Potter. The film, “Taking the Cure: The Story of Frankfort Mineral Springs,” will premiere at 8 p.m. June 26 on Moon Community Access Television, Channel 14 on the Comcast system. Potter, 70, a 20-year volunteer with MCA-TV, based his 30-minute film on talks that park environmental educator Patrick Adams has been giving on the subject since 1991. With the help of his wife, Pat, and grandson, Shane Potter, 13, Potter filmed a model of the resort at the park’s Wildflower Preserve office, and the site itself, which sits off Route 18 in Hanover. The film recounts the history of the resort, which Edward McGinnis began building in the mid-1800s on a level area he owned above the springs, which flow down on one side of a spectacular rock grotto. A stream flows down on the opposite side. McGinnis found the spring waters healing and used that as the resort attraction. Guests at his resort could walk down steps cut into a wooded hillside to the springs, where they could “take the cure” by drinking the waters that flow to this day. The resort prospered in the late 19th century, with guests arriving by horse and buggy or stage coach. “People of means went there for a vacation in the country,” Potter said. “It was similar to Bedford Springs, but much smaller.” “It’s hard to believe people came to (the area) who were well-to-do, but they did,” Adams said. The resort eventually took the name of a nearby town, Frankfort. Later, the town renamed itself Frankfort Springs to differentiate itself from the Frankfort in eastern Pennsylvania. However, with the advent of the automobile, patrons who formerly went to Frankfort Mineral Springs began vacationing elsewhere. Business dropped off until the resort closed in 1912. Twenty years later, a fire destroyed the hotel. The state park acquired the property in 1967. A 1972 project reconstructed one of the guest cottages as a site for exhibits of the resort. But in the remote area, vandals carried off displays and scribbled graffiti on the walls. Potter took a tour about four years ago and thought the history of the largely forgotten resort was worth preserving. It took him and his helpers about a year to produce the film. “It’s informative and gets the point across as far as the history of the area,” Adams said. Adams said that he hopes within the next three years to get a grant for signs that would give more information about the resort for those hiking through the area off Route 18.

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