Built in 1875, Potton Springs Hotel and its famous sulphur springs attracted thousands of guests from all over eastern North America. The most important local attraction in its day, the spa had its own railway station and post office. At the peak of the craze in the early 1900s, the railway carried thousands of people to the springs every summer, all of them eager to “take the cure.”
The mineral springs, like those elsewhere, were thought to have great therapeutic properties. People could bathe in the spring water and were encouraged to drink as much of it as they wished.
Visitors to Potton Springs arrived on the Missisquoi and Black Rivers Valley Railway, which later became the Orford Mountain Railway, which in turn became the Canadian Pacific. Situated in the valley of the North Missisquoi River, in Potton Township, the Potton Springs Hotel burned to the ground in the 1930s. Rail service in the valley ceased soon after.
Today, very little remains of Potton Springs. Except for the spring.