The Hailey Hot Springs Hotel was Idaho’s first summer resort. Here local historian and author, John Lundin, muses on some early plunge therapy in the Wood River Valley.
The discovery of silver in 1879 brought thousands to the Wood River Valley. The Valley’s Hot Springs Resorts were popular centers for entertainment, recreation and health for locals and tourists, as elsewhere.
“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,” said Carrie Adell Strahorn in her book, Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage, 1912.
Hailey Hot Springs in Democrat Gulch, two miles west of Hailey on the 1880 Perry Croy homestead, was Idaho’s first real summer resort. After the Oregon Short Line Railroad (a Union Pacific subsidiary) arrived at Hailey in May 1883, it promoted the Valley’s hot springs as tourist attractions and provided excursion fares.
The Resort’s first owner, J.L. Smith, “was so cruel to his family that his wife at last picked up a shotgun and killed him, an act justified by the courts and many of the Hailey citizens.” Mrs. Smith was acquitted of his murder. (Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage.)
The Alturas Mining Reporter, 1883, said 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…”
Elliott’s History of Idaho Territory, 1884, said the Resort’s water “possesses many invigorative and curative qualities. Doctor Miller’s hospital, located a little below these springs, where he has the use of this water for his patients, in one of the institutions of Wood River…The springs are supplied with tub and plunge baths, one for the ladies and one for the gentlemen.”
In May 1886, railroad promoter Robert E. Strahorn opened the Alturas Hotel in Hailey, with “all of the modern conveniences… the finest hotel between Denver and the Pacific Ocean,” marking “the beginning of a new era for that part of Idaho.” Water from Hailey Hot Springs was piped in to heat the hotel, including a large natatorium. (Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage.)
In 1888, Strahorn formed a company to rebuild and expand Hailey Hot Springs, using a stock prospectus to raise $150,000. On August 6, 1888, it purchased the Springs and Lamb Ranch for $20,000, obtaining 1,000 acres of rolling bunchgrass and meadow lands and a herd of 150 registered Kentucky cattle, “forming the finest herd west of Iowa.”
A new hotel was built “on the flat a half a mile below the springs within sight of Hailey,” heated with spring water, “with separate plunges for men and women, a ballroom, and a bowling alley in the basement.”
It had a pavilion 50 by 105 feet, two stories and basement, in which there are large and small bath rooms, ball room, parlor, dining room, billiard room, ten-pin alley, and rooms for persons to rest in after bathing…and the grounds are being laid off and cultivated in the highest style of landscape art…$40,000 was spent to create three lakes, one for outside swimming and bathing, and the other two for the cultivation of trout and other fish and boating.”
The Resort was “a joy and comfort to all that country between Salt Lake and Huntington…No pains or money had been spared in making the place attractive for such people as [U.P. financier] Jay Gould and family… who found it a charming retreat. With Union Pacific cooperation in bringing patronage, the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel was a success…” (Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage.)
An 1890 travel book said the Resort was “in a most charming little park or glade, overlooked by high mountains…where numerous mining shaft tunnels are in plain view.”
“Commodious swimming baths are provided…for the delightful effect of a plunge.” Patients with “neuralgia, paralysis, dyspepsia, inflammatory or mercurial rheumatism…left completely restored.”
In July 1899, the Hot Springs Hotel was destroyed by a rapidly moving fire. “A Smoking Ruin,” Wood River Times, August 2, 1899. When the Hailey Hose Company arrived, “[t]he hotel was all ablaze and the flames could not be checked…A smouldering ruin is all that remains of the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel. The three chimneys are still standing as is the foundation masonry. All else is razed to the ground.” Owners had invested $127,000 in the Resort. Fire destroyed the $75,000 hotel, insured for half its value. All guests escaped unhurt but their losses ran between $12,000 and $15,000.
The visitors to the Springs were not of the eastern penny-pinching class of tourists. They were usually very wealthy people, who demanded the best there was to be had, expecting to pay well for it. It is estimated they put into circulation into this immediate vicinity between $300 to $500 a day. The loss to this town is therefore quite serious.
There was later a rumor the fire was “accidently set by the upsetting of a lamp used by some ladies who were curling their hair.”
Hailey Hot Springs continued in a reduced state in summer 1900—round trip from Hailey, 35 cents; baths 35 cents; children 15 cents. “Friday of each week will be reserved for Ladies.”
This was the end of one of the Wood River Valley’s famous institutions. Guyer Hot Springs Resort on Warm Springs Creek entertained guests until the 1920s.