Aspira Spa at the Osthoff Resort

Award-winning Aspira Spa at The Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, WI, aspires to pay tribute to the area’s Native American heritage.
Resort and Spa General Manager Lola Roeh says the small lake, shaped like an elk’s heart, was viewed as a hallowed site by the Potawatomi, Menominee and Ojibwa tribes. “Native Americans had reverence for the water of the lake and its healing properties,” says Roeh, who created signature treatments based on her research.
For the Sacred Waters Massage, therapists take water from the lake and give thanks for it. It is warmed, put in soft deerskin pouches, and placed in the palms of guests and on chakras on the back.
After the ritual, water is returned to the lake in another bow to Native American reverence for nature. “We don’t just take; we give back,” therapist Mindy Jacquat says.
Locally sourced cedar infuses the grapeseed oil used for the massage and is an element of other treatments. “Cedar was honored (by Native Americans) for its properties of protection and purification,” Roeh says.
Aspira, whose focal point is a spectacular circular Meditation Sanctuary (shown above), with water trickling down a wall of bluestone into a large sunken copper vessel, also uses herbs grown in the resort’s organic garden. aspiraspa.com