The Sweet Chalybeate Springs spa complex in Alleghany County is a relic of the 19th-century days when the fashionable world of the North and South came to the mineral springs of western Virginia to “take the waters and play the marriage market.” Known since the 18th century, Sweet Chalybeate was developed in 1836 into a commercial resort which lasted until 1918. Although some of the buildings are neglected and deteriorating, the relatively complete collection of mid- and late-19th-century pavilions and cottages attests to the popularity of the resort and provides a poignant picture of a Virginia spa. The springs themselves, claimed to contain the strongest carbonated mineral waters in the nation, still flow freely from the limestone bluff. Chalybeate is a type of mineral water impregnated with salts of iron.