Paso Robles Hot Springs: Difference between revisions

Paso Robles Hot Springs
Historic brochure for Paso Robles Hot Springs, c.1900
Location	Paso Robles, California
Coordinates	35°37′32″N 120°41′29″W / 35.62556°N 120.69139°W / 35.62556; -120.69139
Elevation	223 metres (732 ft)
Type	geothermal

Paso Robles Hot Springs is a system of geothermal hot springs in the area of Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County, California. They were developed in the late 19th and early 20th century.

History

There are records by Spanish explorers that the hot springs and hot mud deposits were used by the local Indigenous peoples.^[1] As long ago as 1795, Paso Robles has been described as "California's oldest watering place", as a place with plentiful springs and mud baths.^[2] During the Mission period in California, there were mineral baths built by Franciscan priests at the nearby San Miguel Mission. As more settlers were attracted to the area, cattle ranches, vineyards and fruit and nut orchards were established. The first mineral spring bath house, the El Paso de Robles Hotel, was built in the town of Paso Robles in 1864.^[3]

The hot springs are located on the Paso Robles Rancho land grant property that was purchased in the 1857 by Daniel Blackburn and Drury James.^[3] In 1868, travelers were arriving from Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho to visit the mud baths and the Sand Spring and Iron Spring at Paso Robles.^[2] In 1882, the two published an advertising brochure titled, El Paso de Robles Hot and Cold Sulphur Springs and the Only Natural Mud Baths in the World. The Paso Robles Inn was constructed in 1891. In 1904 the Paso Robles Hot Sulphur Company was formed by 12 investors to build a bathhouse for locals and to develop a spa for tourists and guests.^[1] In 1910 a brochure was published called, Paso Robles Hot Springs; the great hot springs resort of America by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.^[4] In 1913, the Inn burned down. The following year, in 1914, on the north side of town, the Paso Robles Hot Springs facility opened on a 45-acre site, which stayed open until 1980.^[1]

As of 2023, there are three commercial hot springs facilities that remain: Franklin Hot Springs,^[5] Paso Robles Inn, and River Oaks Hot Springs.^[3]

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The bathhouse was erected over the sulfur spring in 1888, with a plunge and 37 bath rooms. In the following year, work began on the large Hot Springs Hotel (today the Paso Robles Inn), which was completed in 1900 and burned down 40 years later. Since the privilege of using the baths was restricted to guests of the hotel, and many sufferers of the ailments the baths cured could not pay the rates of the fashionable hotel, a few businessmen in Paso Robles made arrangements with Felix Liss for the right to bore for sulphur water on a lot that Liss owned. A sulfur well was reached, a bath house was built, and baths were offered at an affordable rate of 25 cents. The establishment was later offered to the city and is currently the site of the Municipal Pool.^{[citation needed]}

Water profile

In 1889, the spring water was purported to heal "acute and chronic rheumatism, articular affections, scrofula, blood, glandular and cutaneous diseases." It was also claimed that the water "proved highly beneficial" for catarrh of the naso-pharynx, engorgement of the pelvic organs as well as leucorrhoeal [sic] discharges.^[6]

References