Twelve Mile Circle has featured hot springs before. There was Hot Springs, Virginia in Taking a Bath. There was Hot Springs County, Wyoming and its county seat of Thermopolis in The Largest Smallest US County. Geothermal activities existed in many places and I’d taken notice plenty of times.
Nonetheless it mildly surprised me when I spotted a virtual visitor dropping onto the site from Hot Springs, South Dakota. I’d not heard of that one before. I wondered how many Hot Springs — just Hot Springs and not Something-or-Another-Hot Springs — existed around the continent wherever warm water bubbled from deep below. There were many. Some of them were even worth mentioning.
These towns dated back to an earlier age. Natural hot springs were a much bigger attraction than they are today. Eventually even budget accommodations like the Super 8 and Motel 6 installed hot tubs that plugged into wall sockets. However, back at the dawn of American settlement, hot water warmed deep within the earth as if by magic seemed wondrous.
Hot Springs, Arkansas
I suppose I should start with the obvious one, Hot Springs, Arkansas. If anyone mentioned Hot Springs, chances were good that this would be the one. It had been a resort town for most of two centuries and even today boasted thousands of residents. Hot Springs was the oldest Federal reserve in the United States. The government,set it aside for future generations all the way back in 1832. Much later it became a full-fledged National Park in 1921.
“Hot springs in the middle of town? Water. That’s what first attracted people, and they have been coming here ever since to use these soothing thermal waters to heal and relax. Rich and poor alike came for the baths, and a thriving city built up around the hot springs. Together nicknamed ‘The American Spa,’ Hot Springs National Park today surrounds the north end of the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas.”
One of the most interesting features was Bathhouse Row, a collection of eight buildings constructed in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries (map). Entrepreneurs designed each one with increasing opulence as they competed with each other to attract visitors searching for curative waters.
Hot Springs, South Dakota
I figured I should look at Hot Springs, South Dakota next since that was the one that started me down this tangent. The site definitely went back in history. However, it never seemed to catch-on as a spa town.
“Called Minnekahta (warm waters) by the original white settlers in 1879, the town’s name was changed to Hot Springs in 1886. Earlier, the Lakota and the Cheyenne Indian tribes fought for control of the natural warm waters. Legends tell of a hostile encounter waged in the hills high above the gurgling springs on a peak called Battle Mountain.”
A more recent find actually fascinated me more. A construction crew discovered the Mammoth Site in the 1970’s as they built a new housing development on the edge of town (map). Excavators there stumbled upon the remains of a karst sinkhole. About 26,000 years ago during the Pleistocene era it was a natural spring
Megafauna, particularly Columbian and Woolly Mammoths, occasionally wandered too far into the spring and couldn’t escape. Then local conditions preserved their skeletons perfectly where they died. It remains an active archaeological site.
[UPDATE: I visited the Mammoth Site in 2015]
Hot Springs, North Carolina
Hot Springs were discovered in the early days of settlement after the American Revolution where Spring Creek fed into the French Broad River in North Carolina. It became a spa town. A resort grew around the springs and continues to operate at that location in the modern era (map). It probably gained more attention, however, as a stopping point on the Appalachian Trail
“The Appalachian Trail was built through the town of Hot Springs over seven decades ago, and today white blazes still mark the path through town and over the bridge across the French Broad River, before heading north up to the vista, Lover’s Leap. The Trail is unequivocally intertwined with the town – it is the first town, headed on a northbound hike, through which the Trail literally overlaps the town’s main street.”
I imagine a dip in the hot springs might feel pretty good to thru-hikers. They’ve already marched hundreds of miles on foot along the mountaintops by that point.
Hot Springs, Nevada
The actual town of Hot Springs, Nevada ceased to exist a long time ago. It is a ghost town:
“As near as one can tell, the doctor closed up shop in the mid-1870s and no other interest emerged in the area. Today absolutely nothing remains of the wooden bathhouse but the hot springs are going strong.”
A park for Recreational Vehicles, Bailey’s Hot Springs, later occupied the site and continues to serve travelers. According to the website, “Hot Mineral Baths [are] Included” — a nice perk for those who want to park an RV overnight.
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