The History of the hot tub, spa, jetted bath, whatever…..

If you count Mother Nature’s steaming mineral baths in Italy, the spa concept began 5,000 years ago. Many point to the ancient Egyptians’ use of public baths for therapeutic purposes around 2,000 B.C.

But for construction of an actual, albeit simple, spa, historians cite 600 B.C., when Phraortes, king of Media (a former empire in ancient Iran) had one constructed. The vessel was heated by super-hot stones.

Ancient Greeks delighted in building mineral and thermal baths, circa 500 B.C., but leave it to the Romans in the 300s B.C. to not only luxuriate in mineral waters, but also design huge public baths – the largest being the Diocletian at 130,000 square yards.

Two key European cities in such a history are Spa, Belgium, which has been famous for its medicinal spring waters since the Middle Ages, and Bath, England, where thousands flocked for healing purposes from 800 B.C. well into the 20th century.

For centuries, Japanese families enjoyed the ofuro, or hot-water bathing, in freestanding wooden tubs.
In the United States, Native Americans were using natural hot springs for health and religious reasons long before Europeans arrived on the scene. In 1791, “floating swimming baths” appeared in Philadelphia; made of wood and canvas, these “therapeutic” vessels were either attached to the shore or the bottom of a lake or river. The first wooden hot tubs started appearing in the 1960s in California. To avoid the leakage problem from those early models, lightweight, acrylic portable spas were developed by various manufacturers.

The Jacuzzi spa was developed and patented by the Jacuzzi family in 1954. Some call it the first modern portable spa. Though many people use “Jacuzzi” as a synonym for “hot tub” or “spa,” it is a trademarked name and should not be used generically. In today’s world Bullfrog Spas are the most technologically advanced spas available (quite different from the hot stones placed in the rock bathtub.) The Above Ground Pool & Spa Company is the South Texas Bullfrog Dealer.