The fountain of youth’s in Idaho? Carey, Idaho

"The FDA’ll pin you at the cross if you do," said the proprietor of Ellsworth Mineral Company, a startlingly spry, 80-something D-Day vet.

Speaking from his parlor overlooking swampy Carey Lake, Ellsworth added, "We’re not looking to get into any trouble."

But Ellsworth would swear on the Book of Mormon that he’s not lying when he says, "In that shed out back runs what’s been called the Fountain of Youth. It’s the best water in the world."

And if you care to ask, the career farmer will tell you, in a slow drawl, that his natural hot springs, running from Craters of the Moon National Monument, relieved his now-deceased wife Norma’s "horrible" skin-inflaming psoriasis, his shrapnel wounds and a whole mess of other hardships distressing others, including acne, Diabetes and ulcers.

"I’ve seen this water do what some medicines can’t," Ellsworth said, sounding somewhat dumbfounded. "After people start drinking the water, their ailments just seem to vanish. We keep getting all sorts of reports."

He’ll tell stories of beer brewing moguls jetting the water clear to St. Louis, and others less notable carrying cardboard flats filled with the electric-blue-labeled bottles to places in Florida, Oregon, California, Maine, and Connecticut.

"We never know who...or what we’re going to have come in here," Ellsworth said.

This attention came as a surprise for Ellsworth, Norma and their two sons.

The family had lived all over parts of Blaine County, from Hailey to Gannett, before they made the move to Carey Lake in 1975.

Back when the Ellsworths built their solid wooden home, Maurice said all he had in mind was the farmland, the hot spring’s free heat and endless water and the fat hunting in his backyard.

"Our heating bill was never more than $50 a month and our well’s never gone dry," Ellsworth said.

Before long, he and his family started noticing that the hot spring might have more to offer than better home economics.

Others did, too.

About 20 years ago, the eczema bothering Kay Kelsey’s daughters Michelle and Jennifer disappeared after the girls took a few dips in Ellsworth’s hot springs-filled swimming pool. Kelsey said it’s helped clear various infections for her, as well.

"It really was remarkable," she said. "I’m certain it does more than usual water would do."

Hailey’s Lucille and Wayne Brower went so far as to carry 50 gallons of the stuff on a trip to the Midwest after they came to believe it cured a colon problem and helped recoveries from giardia and lymphoma cancer.

Adamson’s Store in Carey sells the Craters of the Moon water and proprietor Erma Adamson is apparently quite a devotee.

So, for protection from the elements and from animals, Ellsworth has built a shed around his lode.

From that shed, he ran a pipe out to an adjacent turn-of-the-century cabin. The cabin is where he and whatever help he can dredge up hand fill each bottle from a faucet.

"I guess only the good Lord knows where the spring came from," he said, quickly adding one thing he does know from tests is it doesn’t come from a source near INEEL labs.

In fact, one difference between Ellsworth’s spring and many others is that its depth, purity, and heat produce a remarkably potable water.

Geothermal hot springs are generally something of a natural crap shoot. If they’re hot enough, like Ellsworth’s, they dissolve whatever minerals are around. If toxic substances such as arsenic, heavy metals or unpleasantly odorous compounds such as hydrogen sulfide are present, there’s cause for concern.

Water purity and uniformity analyses from the U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Department prove their absence, letting Ellsworth rest easy during his nightly baths.

The difference between Ellsworth’s spring and many others is that the 30-or-so trace minerals found in his water are purportedly beneficial to health.

Now, he is starting to look into letting his mineral water follow a more commercial stream, though at one time he thought the spring would never bring him two dimes to rub together.

His easy-to-swallow prices have something to do with this.

He’ll sell a case holding two-dozen 16-ounce bottles for $10 or six gallons in bigger bottles for $6. It costs 50¢ to fill your own one-gallon container.

"There’s enough water to fill better’n 100 semi loads a day," he said, adding that a few offers--of the international business variety--make him think his well may be a sunken treasure.

"People tell me I could make millions every year, but that’s all just talk or hot air or B.S. or whatever you say until someone proves it."

Ellsworth said he’s holding out for a 50-50 partnership situation--maybe a health and golf resort--and refuses to unload the whole operation to a stranger.

"I don’t care about the money," he said. "I just want to do it right."

So, for now, he’ll quietly bottle the water himself, soak nightly in his hot springs-filled tub and making sure the Adamson’s shelves are stocked for the "little people" until, that is, the bear Ellsworth thinks he’s holding onto shakes its hibernation.