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Dr. Richard Starkey, a dentist and physician who opened a hot springs resort in rural Council in 1906, is long gone. But his story is resurfacing through Whole Foods, which has purchased the hot springs and last month started selling Starkey Spring Water in liter bottles at its Boise store.
Whole Foods last year bought 220 acres and some of rights to the springs, which discharge 650 million gallons of 132-degree geothermal water per year.
Jeff Teter, who works on the Starkey project as president of Allegro Coffee Co., a subsidiary of Whole Foods, expects the Denver-based grocery giant will eventually take about 100,000 gallons per year of the water, which it bottles in a small leased building eight miles from the springs in Council. Whole Foods is building up an inventory at a Boise warehouse and will eventually ship the water to its 380 stores around the United States, Teter said.
Whole Foods started selling the glass liter bottles at its Boise store for $2.99 in September. Starkey is one of many brands of bottled water sold by Whole Foods. Teter intends to expand the Starkey brand within the store, and he thinks its picturesque story will help.
"We have to compete with other water producers that sell to Whole...