In the 1840’s, government surveyors marked a large white pine on the high banks of the Au Sable River and named it “Iargo Springs”. Iargo Springs means “many waters” and comes from the Native American Indians that lived along the river banks. Eventually, lumberjacks built a dam and diverted some of the water to nearby logging camps. In the 1920’s, visitors started coming to see the natural spring waters.

In 1990, a stairway with 300 steps and a vertical drop of 200′ was built to reach the natural springs. Several hundred feet of boardwalk and viewing decks were also built at the bottom overlooking Cooke Pond.