Within a few years, a man named Burnham constructed a bottling works on the site and began selling the mineral water as a health tonic. He called it "Waconda Flier". The sales of "Waconda Flier" piqued the interest of an eastern investor named McWilliams, who in 1884 invested in the site and began the construction of a stone sanitarium. The spring was fenced off and completely privatized. The building was completed ten years later, and under the management of G. W. Cooper, Waconda Spring became a hotel and health spa. Sales of "Waconda Flier" continued, and by the 1890s it was being sold in all parts of the country. In 1904, "Waconda Flier" won a medal for its superior medicinal qualities at the St. Louis World's Fair.