Camas Hot Springs

Long before Euro-American fur trappers and settlers arrived in the Little Bitterroot River Valley where Hot Springs, Montana is located, the Kootenai, Flathead, Pend d'Oreille and Kalispell Indigenous peoples inhabited this area.{{cite web |title=National Register of Historic Places: Symes Hotel |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/6e3eff9c-8995-4357-a7cf-c30153615bdb/ |website=Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service |access-date=27 January 2024}} The Pend d'Orielles reportedly described the springs as "Big Medicine."{{Cite web |last=Madison |first=Erin |title='Limp in, leap out': Montana town touts healing waters |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2013/07/18/hot-springs-montana-alternative-healing/2521011/ |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}

Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit missionary, visited and wrote about the springs in 1842. He recorded that the local Native people used the thermal springs "after the fatigues of a long journey, they find that bathing in this water greatly refreshes them."{{Cite web |title=NHRP: Symes Hotel |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/6e3eff9c-8995-4357-a7cf-c30153615bdb |page=5}} When Flathead Reservation was established, U.S. Congress set aside an {{Convert|160|acre|adj=on}} reserve around the hot springs as part of the organizing legislation.{{Cite book |last=U.S. Senate |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9J-RAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Camas+Hot+Springs%22&pg=PA222 |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties |date=1913 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |others=62d Congress, 2d Session, Document No. 719 |editor-last=Kappler |editor-first=Charles J. |volume=III (Laws, Compiled to December 1, 1913) |page=222 |language=en |chapter=Camas Hot Springs Reserved}}

The Great Falls Tribune reported that by 1905 the hot springs had primitive soaking pools, a hot spring water pool and mineral plunge built by townspeople, and hot mud baths, called a "corn hole"{{cite news |last1=Inbody |first1=Kristen |title=Montana hot springs are cool now, but they were awesome in 1910 |url=https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/my-montana/2018/02/22/montana-hot-springs-cool-now-but-they-were-awesome-1910/361614002/ |access-date=27 January 2024 |publisher=Great Falls Tribune |date=22 February 2018}} that allegedly cured rheumatism. Built by Ed Lemoreaux, the pool was used until 1911.{{Cite book |last=Birkby |first=Jeff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=95hNDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Camas+Hot+Springs%22&pg=PT42 |title=Montana's Hot Springs |date=2018 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4396-6401-8 |pages=no pag |language=en}} One pool was later covered in gazebo and branded as the Fountain of Youth. A Christian missionary who visited Camas in 1911 found "rather few permanent settlers, but some 200 dwellers in hotels and tents seeking benefit from the hot baths."{{Cite magazine |last=Johnson |first=Rev. Elmer H. |title=From a Home Missionary's Diary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uQ3PAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Camas+Hot+Springs%22&pg=PA712 |magazine=The American Missionary |date=1911 |publisher=American Missionary Association |pages=712–713 |language=en}}

File:Camas Hot Springs Montana circa 1911.jpg

The first enclosed bathhouses were built in 1911.{{Cite news |date=1916-02-25 |title=Camas Hot Springs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sanders-county-signal-camas-hot-springs/139583692/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=Sanders County Signal |pages=A2}} Camas Hot Springs was one of more than a dozen hot springs resorts operating in Montana in 1933.{{Cite news |date=1933-07-30 |title=Hot Springs in Montana 1933 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-billings-gazette-hot-springs-in-mont/124588693/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=The Billings Gazette |pages=15}}

A new tribe-owned bath house was constructed and opened in 1949, with "China-blue bath tubs and fine ceramic tile".{{Cite news |last=Clark |first=H. McDonald |date=1953-06-14 |title=Indians Own, Operate Hot Springs Bath House |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/great-falls-tribune-indians-own-operate/139584401/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=Great Falls Tribune |pages=59}} Native American Olympian Jim Thorpe was one of the 5,000 people who attended the grand opening, which included bison and elk barbecue sandwiches.

By 1986 the pipes were clogged with mineral deposits, heating the building was prohibitively expensive, and the building around the long-empty pool was considered derelict.{{Cite news |last=Schwennesen |first=Don |date=1986-12-07 |others=Photographed by Dwan Feary |title=Banking on the Baths |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-banking-on-the-baths/139586231/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=The Missoulian |pages=41}} & {{Cite news |date=1986-12-07 |title=Baths: Reviving the Bath House |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-baths-reviving-the-bath/139586319/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=The Missoulian |pages=50}} The building was closed to the public in 1986.{{Cite news |last=Stromnes |first=John |date=1989-04-23 |title=Health Spa Gets New Lease on Life |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-health-spa-gets-new-lease/139586533/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=The Missoulian |pages=12}} The tribe leased it to a group of locals operating as the Cam Redevelopment Commission in 1989.{{Cite news |date=1989-12-10 |title=Hot Springs fights to shore its eroding economy |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-hot-springs-fights-to-sho/139586799/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=The Missoulian |pages=49}} The tribe funded a public park with springs access in 1991.{{Cite news |date=1991-06-30 |title=Revival |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-revival/139586946/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=The Missoulian |pages=57}} The tribe granted the redevelopment group access to {{Convert|39600|USgal}} of water per day from the bathhouse well.{{Cite news |date=1991-11-24 |title=Bathhouse water rights resolved |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-bathhouse-water-rights-re/139587452/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=The Missoulian |pages=12}} The plan collapsed by 1995, although the "cornhole" pool had been made wheelchair-accessible using funds raised, and the group gave up their lease.{{Cite news |date=1995-04-14 |title=Bathhouse plans fall through; group gives up lease |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/char-koosta-news-bathhouse-plans-fall-th/139587813/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=Char-Koosta News |pages=A1}} A local group named Friends of the Water helps keep the park clean and maintained, and pays insurance costs.{{Cite news |last=Matthews |first=Mark |date=1999-01-15 |title=Visiting Hot Springs Is Like Visiting the Past |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/great-falls-tribune-visiting-hot-springs/139588297/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=Great Falls Tribune |pages=41}}

Outdoor soaking pools remain available to the public as of 2013. Leased from the tribe and operated by Leroy O'Bennick, the springs are now branded as Big Medicine Hot Springs. There is an admissions fee; cash payment on honor system. Tent and RV camping is available nearby, or visitors can rent rooms at Symes Hotel, a complex on the National Register of Historic Places, or Alameda's.{{Cite book |last=Birkby |first=Jeff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QftKAQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Camas+Hot+Springs%22&pg=PA3 |title=Touring Hot Springs Montana and Wyoming: A Guide to the States' Best Hot Springs |page=3 |date=2013-06-04 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4930-0269-6 |language=en}}

File:BIA_1916_via_NARA_-_Plat_showing_the_Townsites_of_Camas_and_Pineville_Sub-Agency_and_Hot_Springs_Reserves_-_Sanders_County_Montana.jpg

The springs are geologically associated with the Selkirk Mountains in Washington.{{Cite report |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/wsp679B |title=Thermal springs in the United States |date=1937 |doi=10.3133/wsp679b |language=en}} According to NOAA, the water temperature where it emerges from the spring vent is {{Convert|113|F}}.{{cite report |url=https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/13426 |title=Thermal Springs List for the United States |last1=Berry |first1=G.W. |last2=Grim |first2=P.J. |date=June 1980 |publisher=U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) |doi=10.2172/6737326 |location=Boulder, Colo. |page=27 |last3=Ikelman |first3=J.A. |others=Environmental Data and Information Service National Geophysical and Solar-Terrestrial Data Center |series=Key to Geophysical Records Documentation No. 12}} According to a USGS water-supply paper, "In the reentrant of the [Bitteroot River] valley drained by Hot Springs Creek...springs are especially numerous. Many of them yield cold water and are of the ordinary seepage type, but a number of springs in this locality yield hot water and are known as the Camas Hot Springs. The Camas Hot Springs are near the northwest corner of sec. 3, T. 21 N., R. 24 W., near the outcrop of a large diorite sill that has a steep dip. The high temperature and the mineral character of the water indicate that it comes from considerable depth. A bathhouse has been built, and the springs are visited each year by hundreds of people who suffer from various ailments."

The Camas mineral water is of a "carbonated alkaline silicious sulphureted water" type.{{Cite news |date=1913-02-21 |title=Camas Hot Springs |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/sanders-county-signal-camas-hot-springs/139606986/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |work=Sanders County Signal |pages=A3}} Specific minerals include calcium (4–7.2 ppm), magnesium (4-4.3 ppm), sodium and postassium (79-93 ppm), carbonate radicle [CO₃] (55-56 ppm), bicarbonate radicle [HCO₃] (96-110 ppm), sulphate radicle [SO₃] (5.8-14 ppm), and chlorine (11-25 ppm).{{cite book|last1=Meinzer |first=Oscar E. |date=1916 |title=Artesian Water in Little Bitterroot Valley, Montana |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/0400b/report.pdf |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |series=U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey Water-Supply Papers |location=Washington, D.C. |language=en-us |id=Water Supply Paper No. 400-B |pages=20, 30–34 |doi=10.3133/wsp400B}}

File:Mud baths at Hot Springs, Montana, c.1899.jpg|Mud baths at Hot Springs, Montana, c.1899

File:Bid-A-Wee Cottage, DeMers Addition, Camas Hot Springs, Montana, 1911.jpg|Bid-A-Wee Cottage, DeMers Addition, Camas Hot Springs, Montana, 1911

File:Teaming in The Bully West, at the DeMers, T.G. Hotel, Camas Hot Springs, 1911.jpg|Teaming in The Bully West, at the DeMers, T.G. Hotel, Camas Hot Springs, 1911

File:Hot Springs and Camas post office location 1917.jpg|Camas post office location, showing relation to hot springs, 1917

• {{annotated link|Symes Hotel}}
• Wild Horse Hot Springs
• {{slink|List of hot springs in the United States|Montana}}
• {{slink|Camas prairie|Montana}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://montanahistoriclandscape.com/tag/camas-hot-springs-montana/ The Hot Springs of Sanders County (montanahistoriclandscape.com)]
• {{Cite web |last=Neill |first=Reilly |last2=Montana Press Staff |date=2019-01-27 |title=Hot Springs Across Montana: A Comprehensive Guide |url=https://www.montanapress.net/post/hot-springs-across-montana-a-comprehensive-guide |website=Montana Press |language=en}}

Category:Hot springs of Montana

Category:Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

Category:Bodies of water of Sanders County, Montana

Category:Tourist attractions in Sanders County, Montana