White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia (pop. 2,221), is a famous health resort named for its mineral springs. It lies about 120 miles (193 kilometers) east of Charleston, the state capital. The city has a mayor-council government.
Settlers first came to the region about 1750. Fashionable people of the Old South visited the springs as early as 1779. After the resort became famous, its President’s Cottage served as the summer home of Presidents Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), soldiers fought the Battle of Dry Creek near the resort.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad opened the elegant Greenbrier Hotel in the area in 1922. From 1962 to 1992, the United States government maintained a secret bunker (fortified shelter) beneath the hotel. It was intended to serve as a fallout shelter for members of the U.S. Congress in the event of nuclear war.
