Bristol Hills Historical Society

After the Bristol Hills Historical Society announced that Bristol's famous Burning Springs would be open to the public at two events in the spring of 2021, a remarkable email landed in our in-box. For more than 30 years, Alan Jones, the owner of the property, has wondered how to contact the person who conducted extensive research into the site in the 1960s and donated his papers to the Ontario County Historical Society. Those papers have helped Jones and local historians tell the story of the Springs over the years. The local natives had long considered the site sacred, and so significant that they felt the need to show it in 1669 to the French explorer La Salle. After that "discovery," the springs evidently were "rediscovered" in the early 19th century, which is the part of the story that's revealed in the papers at the county historical society.

Then the email arrived from the researcher, James DeVoll, whose brother lives nearby and heard about the events on two consecutive Saturdays, May 29 and June 5. On those dates, Jones will open his extensive gardens to the public from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and will lead a tour to the Burning Springs to give a talk and light the natural, gas-fed flame. "His coming forward is an awesome surprise," Jones said.

While DeVoll cannot attend the events, he gave us permission to publish this reminiscence of how he came to compile a record of the Springs' notoriety.

I first heard of the spring when my history teacher in Jr High (Red Jacket Central) mentioned it. I found the concept so fascinating that I began a years-long project of trying to collect all printed and map references to it.

In 1969 I attended the 300th anniversary event at the spring organized by J. Sheldon Fisher (once & future county historian). I gave a ride to Herb Ellis (Canandaigua City Historian) who was then quite elderly. He asked me to take him home before the event was over, so I missed the historical discussion. I had intended to report an historical tidbit that I found in the newspaper files at the Ontario County Historical Society, where I worked for one summer helping the curator, Clyde Maffin.

Of course, the "main event" was the 1669 visit of La Salle, but there were many accounts by other travelers during the 1800s. What I found indicated that the spring had apparently been forgotten sometime after La Salle's visit, because according to a "Communication" in the May 4, 1813, "Ontario Repository and Western Advertiser": "A burning spring was discovered in Bristol a few days since, on the land of Mr. Daniel Burt, that excites the attention of the public. It was discovered by a tree being on fire; a limb fell into the spring, and set it on fire. It burns blue, similar to burning of spirits; the fissure in the rock is small, from which proceeds the inflamable [sic] air. The water burns over it. The heat is so great as to boil a tea-kittle [sic] in 12 or 15 minutes; it has been tried and eggs boiled in it. The curious are requested to examine it."

This item was picked up by "The Weekly Register" of Baltimore on May 22nd and "The Albany Argus" on May 25th. By August, 1813, "The Literary and Philosophical Repertory", after mentioning the recent Bristol "discovery", stated that in the town of Honeoye, Ontario County, "three different ones have been discovered in this town".

Unfortunately, I have been living in California for the past 40 years and have not done anything with this project since the very early 1970s. It occurred to me that since I was unable to report this "news" in 1969, 52 years later the people attending your tours might be interested in this previously "unknown" wrinkle in the spring's history. I hope you will agree. I wish I could be there myself, but I can't.

Thank you for keeping knowledge of the spring alive 3.5 centuries after its discovery by white people!