Just add water

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When Washington-area businessman Joel Sens toured Virginia's Shenandoah Valley several years ago in an effort to break into the fish-farming industry, he stumbled upon his next investment: a mountain spring.

"I saw this water coming out of the ground -- it was so clear," said Mr. Sens, 41. "I figured it had to be worth something."

Mr. Sens learned that the spring, spanning 145 acres in the George Washington National Forest, was not a secret to the surrounding Augusta County residents, who for generations had been drinking its water and sharing its folklore.

The spring was owned jointly by 13 members of the Baker family, who had possessed it since 1965 but did not bottle and sell the water.

"It took me two years just to get the necessary signatures," said Mr. Sens, who persuaded the family to sell him the spring for $1 million.

In 2003, Mr. Sens formed Seawright Holdings Inc., an Alexandria holding company for Seawright Springs bottled water. It took about a year to design an upscale label and plastic bottle, which required a special mold to make it "look like glass."

"We thought that Seawright Springs is unique, and we wanted the look of it to resemble that quality," Mr. Sens said.

King George II of England deeded the spring to John Seawright in 1741.

Its legends "are really kind of strange," said John Heatwole, an author and historian who lives 15 miles from the spring in Woope, Va.

According to one tale, witches and headless bodies from a local cemetery dance around the spring on Fridays after midnight.