The Lithia springs that give Ashland's park its name emerge from the hillside northeast of town, rich in lithium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and enough sulphur compounds to make the water smell faintly of rotten eggs. In the early twentieth century, city promoters marketed Ashland as a health resort on the strength of these springs, hoping to rival the mineral-water towns of the eastern United States. The Chautauqua movement arrived, then the theatre festival, and the health-resort angle was quietly dropped.
The springs feed two public fountains on the plaza at the entrance to Lithia Park — cast-iron affairs installed in the 1920s. The water is perfectly safe to drink and, according to some, good for digestion. Tasting it is an Ashland rite of passage, though the experience more closely resembles drinking from a warm bicycle inner tube.