Editing Bonner Springs, Kansas (section)

=== Mineral springs ===
Several of the springs in the area were analysed for their mineral content, and the results indicated benefits that would attract visitors. The Bonner Springs Improvement Club, in 1907, created a promotional brochure touting the city as the "Kansas [[Karlovy Vary|Karlsbad]]" and listing the contents of five springs near Lake of the Woods: Big Chief, Little Chief, Papoose, Old Squaw and Minnehaha. They listed "grains per gallon" of things like [[potassium sulphate]], carbonate of iron, and [[sodium chloride|chloride of sodium]] for each.{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}}

Big Chief was noted to be "splendid water for [[anemia|anemics]], supplying the necessary properties for good red blood and driving out the dead and impure corpuscles."{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}}

Old Squaw was reportedly so named because "the old women of Indian tribes once living in Kansas found relief from their intense [[dyspepsia]] caused by their heavy meat diet and little or no exercise."{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}}

To promote the springs, a special train brought investors to the area and cited its proximity to Kansas City, the springs themselves, the fine parks and native trees, the site of a racetrack, and the beautiful residential sites as advantages that would assure the success of the mineral spring venture. In 1885, Philo Clark purchased {{convert|300|acre}} from McDanield, with plans to capitalize on the mineral springs, then changed the name of the town to "Bonner Springs".<ref name="auto1" /> The latter portion of the name comes from a [[mineral spring]] in the area said to have medicinal qualities.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_o8X5krq3fP8C | title=Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc. | publisher=Standard Publishing Company | author=Blackmar, Frank Wilson | year=1912 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_o8X5krq3fP8C/page/n201 205]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bonnersprings.org/index.aspx?NID=774 | title=Bonner Springs History | publisher=City of Bonner Springs, Kansas | access-date=June 12, 2014}}</ref> The town was named after [[Robert E. Bonner]], a publisher of the ''[[New York Ledger]]'', who was a trotting-horse breeder of note, and Clark believed would help fund the proposed racetrack. However, there is no record this occurred.{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}}