Editor’s Note: The Gem State is home to more geothermal gems than any other state in the Lower 48. And a handful of those hot springs were once big attractions in the Wood River Valley. In today’s story, Ketchum historian John W. Lundin catalogs some the more prominent hot springs and tells us of the Hailey Hot Springs, which was once a major tourist destination.

BY JOHN W. LUNDIN

Since the Wood River Valley was first settled in the early 1880s, hot springs resorts have been important institutions. They were centers for health and recreation for valley residents and attracted visitors from outside the valley who traveled here by train well before Sun Valley Resort opened in 1936.

Guyer Hot Springs on Warm Springs Creek close to the present Warm Springs ski area of Bald Mountain was the most famous of all the valley’s hot springs resorts, operating from 1882 until the late 1920s.

A herd of 150 Kentucky cattle “forming the finest herd west of Iowa” occupied the fields near the Hailey Hot Springs Resort. COURTESY: The Community Library

There are many hot springs in and around the Wood River Valley, a number of which were developed as high-end resorts that become important centers of health and recreation, attracting locals and tourists for decades. The area’s primary hot springs include Magic Hot Springs; Hailey Hot Springs located two miles west of Hailey in Democrat Gulch; Clarendon Hot Springs on Deer Creek north of Hailey; Guyer Hot Springs two miles west of Ketchum on Warm Springs Creek; Warfield Hot Springs (often called Frenchman’s Bend), 11 miles west of Ketchum on Warm Springs Road; Easley Hot Springs, 12 miles north of Ketchum; and Russian John Hot Springs, eight miles north of the SNRA headquarters.

They are the result of geological forces that shaped the local area. Hailey Hot Springs, Clarendon Hot Springs, and Guyer Hot Springs were developed into commercial establishments in the 1880s and early 1900s, with pools, hotels, dance floors, high-end restaurants and other amenities.

They served local residents, and attracted tourists who came to the Wood River Valley on the Oregon Short Line Railroad to “take the waters” for health or recreation and to enjoy the scenery, fishing and hunting. The health benefits of the resorts were extensively advertised, with the Union Pacific and Oregon Short Line providing excursion trains with special fares to reach them. They brought many visitors into the Wood River Valley, including wealthy tourists like railroad financier John J. Gould.

Hailey Hot Springs Resort operated from the early 1880s until it burned down in 1899. The hotel at Clarendon Hot Springs was open to the public until the late 1970s. Guyer Hot Springs Resort operated from 1882 until the late 1920s.

This artist drawing of the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel was in the stock prospectus used to obtain funding. COURTESY: The Community Library.

Carrie Adell Strahorn, wife of railroad publicist Robert E. Strahorn, in her classic book about the west, “15,000 Miles by Stage,” said hot springs were important to western tourism and travel: “Hot mineral springs are bountifully sprinkled over the western country, and in a number of places they are the most important adjuncts of a town.”

When Oregon Short Line tracks reached the Wood River Valley in the early 1880s, Hailey Hot Springs became Idaho’s first real summer resort. Hailey Hot Springs was part of the original Perry Croy homestead claim filed in 1880 in what is now Croy Canyon. Beginning in the early 1880s, it served as a recreation center and tourist attraction and was the site of a miner’s hospital.

The Alturas Mining Reporter in November 1883 said the Hailey Thermal Springs “are among the few natural sulphur springs of the United States and are one of the greatest curiosities, as well as one of the most attractive health resorts, in the Territory.” A reliable analysis of the mineral waters shows them to be identical with many celebrated Hot Sulphur Springs of America and Europe, among them the well-known springs of Avor and Sharon, in New York State, the White Springs of Virginia and the Bagneres of the Pyrenees.

A popular travel book published in 1890—"Cuffett’s Overland Tours Consisting of Nearly 5,000 Miles of Tours”--described the plans of railroad publicist Robert E. Strahorn and a relative also named Robert Strahorn from Chicago to rebuild and greatly expand Hailey Hot Springs. In the summer of 1888, these springs and 800 acres of land in the vicinity were purchased by Chicago capitalists and a grand plan of improvements commenced.

This picture of Hailey Hot Springs—1.5 miles from Hailey—is from “History of Idaho Territory, 1884.” COURTESY John W. Lundin

The plans for the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel included a 50-by-105-foot pavilion, two stories and basement, in which there are large and small bath rooms, ballroom, parlor, dining room, billiard room, ten-pin alley, and rooms for persons to rest in after bathing. The bathtubs were porcelain. The new buildings were on the flat a half mile below the springs within sight of Hailey, and the grounds were landscaped to make the place as attractive as possible.

“The new buildings are not used as a hotel, any further than serving the finest lunches and temporary rest after bathing, while there are ample arrangements for amusements. A complete system of water works is being put in for the buildings and grounds, which will cause an outlay of $40,000, and are to be finished during the present season.

“There will be on the grounds three lakes--one for outside swimming and bathing and the other two for the cultivation of trout and other fish and boating. Thousands of trees are being planted on the grounds, about the springs and around the buildings, and it will not be long before this will become a most delightful resort. The company owns 150 registered pedigreed shorthorn cattle, said to be the largest pedigreed herd west of Iowa.”

Tragically, in summer 1899, the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel burned down—"A Smoking Ruin,” said the Wood River Times on Aug. 2, 1899: “A fire destroyed the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel belonging to Robert Strahorn of the Chicago Stockyards, in which he had invested $127,000, with the hotel costing $75,000. The hotel was insured for half of its value. The hotel was crowded with guests when it caught fire, but all escaped unhurt.

You can buy the land that once served the Hailey Hot Springs Resort if you fancy a good soak. PHOTO: Karen Bossick

“The Hailey Hose Company responded, but they arrived too late to be of much use. The hotel was all ablaze and the flames could not be checked.”

The three chimneys remained standing along with the foundation but all else was razed to the ground.

“The lawn in front of the hotel is much damaged. Over 300 feet of the fence was burned, and the grass for the same distance, by a width of 50 or 60 feet is charred. The lawn to the north and between the hotel and the cottage is charred. The dust of the roadway for 100 feet each way from the hotel, was reddened by the fire and was still hot last night.

“The cottage and the women’s plunge are uninjured, and the men’s plunge is full of water. The women’s plunge was saved by spreading wet bathing suits on the end of the roof and by extinguishing the firebrands that fell in the vicinity. Also, by chopping down the fence and boardwalk connecting it with the hotel.”

The cause of the fire was not clear, although the manager was confident it did not start in the kitchen. The driver of a hack first saw smoke coming from a guest room above the kitchen--he was the one who called “Fire!” and when he rushed into the kitchen, the ceiling was ablaze.

“The rapidity which the fire spread was marvelous. Ten minutes after the first alarm, no one could have reached the staircase between the first and second floor.”

The hotel safe and the piano were saved, along with a sofa and a couple of chairs. The manager lost about $2,000 of personal possessions. Several guests lost $2,000 of jewelry in the fire, and the total loss of the guests ran between $12,000 and $15,000. The Wood River Times later reported a rumor that the fire was accidently set by the upsetting of a lamp used by some ladies who were curling their hair.”

John W. Lundin, a retired lawyer, has written several books recounting the history of Sun Valley and ski jumping. Among them: “Skiing Sun Valley: A History from Union Pacific to the Holdings” and “Images of America: Sun Valley, Ketchum and the Wood River Valley.”