In 1887 Judge Bowden bought the springs with a group of investors and started bottling and selling Bowden lithia spring water. That same year the Sweet Water Hotel, a 300-room luxury health resort, opened in Lithia Springs. The Sweet Water Hotel and its famous lithia spring water were so popular that Mark Twain, members of the Vanderbilt family, and Presidents Cleveland, Taft, McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt all enjoyed the many amenities of the resort which included the world-famous Lithia Vapor Baths.