Site 4 ★ Hot Springs

Site 4 ★ Hot Springs. Main Oregon Trail Back County Byway. Saturday August 16 "...we passed a hot springs near the foot of the same range, the water of which was nearly at a boiling temperature, so that one could not hold is finger in it, and a dog careless stepping across it put one foot in and ran off yelping and whining noisily." James Field, 1845 , The Oregon Trail dropped down a small hill to the Hot Springs noted by nearly every diarist. There were several springs of hot water interspersed by cold-water streams. The water was hot enough to boil eggs or cook meat. Many an emigrant and their animals were surprised by the hot water. A wooden bathhouse was built in the area around 1900. It was replaced by a rock bathhouse a few years later. Mountain Home residents visited this area to picnic on holidays. An attempt to sell stock in a hot springs resort was not successful. Irrigation wells in the area caused the springs to go dry many years ago, leaving only the red-colored channels where the hot sprigs once flowed.