Historical Health Trivia

In 1847 Carlita Lonsway, a railroad worker in Duluth, came up with a way of impregnating spring water with carbon dioxide, resulting in carbonated spring water. She left her job to become one of America’s first female entrepreneurs--and an unusually successful one at that. She packed up two horses and a carriage with dozens of bottles of her newfound sparkling water, a product she called “Invigor-Ale,” and set out for California.

All along the way, she stopped to sell her magnificent new tonic to townsfolk, farmers, and drifters, claiming this elixir to have the power to cure all discomfort, infections, and “whatever ales ye.”

Of course, word caught on quickly, and other manufacturers competed by making virtually the same item, though differentiating their products with various fruit flavor extracts. For many years afterward, carbonated water was a product associated with pain and ill-health and was commonly regarded as an early over-the-counter medicine.

Carlita passed away in 1888 after amassing a respectable fortune in five-cent sales. Although she has left us forever, her claim to fame lives on in the most positive light. Carbonated spring water has become the beverage of choice for active, healthy people all over the world.