For the first time the Essentuki springs of mineral waters were described by the famous Moscow doctor Fedor Petrovich Haaz, who visited the Caucasian Mineral Waters in 1809 and 1810. In 1810 hot springs on the southern slope of Mount Zheleznaya were discovered by him, in the same year he first learned about the mineral springs’ existence in the valley of the Bugunt River also. After a detailed examination F.M. Haas described four mineral water springs in that area, but because of their very low flow rate, he did not attach much importance to them.
Only in 1823 they were re-described and properly evaluated by the professor of the Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy Alexander Petrovich Nelyubin. Examining the area of the Buguntinsky springs, A.P. Nelyubin counted 18 springs of mineral waters, which were assigned numbers in order from No. 1 to No. 18. By the type of mineralization, they all turned out to be alkaline. In addition, he discovered and described 5 more sources from No. 19 to No. 23, which he attributed to a group of sulfur-alkaline ones. In 1825 by the Highest Command on the Bugunt River at 3.5 km to the northeast of the Essentukskiy Post, founded in 1978, the Yessentukskaya village was laid.
However, until the middle of the 50s of the XIX century, the Essentuk springs of mineral waters were not properly used. Residents of the village drank water from the keys and swam in pits dug near the springs, somehow protected from blockage. Arriving patients took baths at the local residents’ home. A new stage in the Essentuki resort development and, together with it, the mineral waters of the Essentuki springs began in 1846 when, under the highest order, the Caucasian Mineral Waters were transferred to the Governor of the Caucasus Prince MS. Vorontsova.
Since 1847, Essentuk mineral springs and the surrounding area have been purchased from the Cossack Host and transferred to the specially created Directorate of Waters in Pyatigorsk. At this time, the number of holidaymakers in the Essentukskiy resort increased significantly, which led to a rapid growth of the village, which, on the orders of Vorontsov, was expanded in 1846 to the northeast and moved close to the sources.
Mineral waters of the Essentuki springs were the first, the industrial bottling and sale of which was organized in Russia. The first mention of it dates back to 1848, when 300 bottles of mineral water from Essentuki sources were sent to the city of Nikolaev to Admiral M. P. Lazarev.
In the 1860s, bottles with Esentuki mineral water were sent to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov, Vladikavkaz, Tiflis. In these years, the mineral water of Essentuki springs was widely recognized not only in Russia, but also abroad, where it was highly valued for its palatability and healing properties. The company that exported Essentuki mineral waters had its own warehouses in Paris, London, Prague and other European cities. In the early 1870s, the constant sale of Esentuki mineral water was established in almost all major cities of Russia. In 1875 the construction of the railway from Rostov to the station of Mineralnye Vody and of the highway from Mineralnye Vody to Kislovodsk over the Pyatigorsk and Essentuki was completed. A conveyance between the resorts was established by means of stagecoaches. All this contributed to a sharp vacationers’ influx to almost 5,000 people in 1883.
From 1885 to 1888, it was possible to achieve a significant increase in the mineral water mining in Essentuki sources No. 4, No. 17, No. 19, No. 20. All this led to the fact that already at the beginning of the 20th century the mineral water bottling reached 10 million bottles a year, and their sale was organized in all major cities of Russia.