Historic Alaskan Hot Springs

Supporting Gardens, Health Spas, Resorts, Hospitals and more

In a preface to the 1917 U.S.G.S. booklet, Mineral Springs in Alaska, the geologist Alfred H. Brooks wrote, “Hot springs are widely distributed in Alaska, but they were only slightly utilized by the natives before the coming of the white man. During the Russian occupation of Alaska primitive bathing houses were built at several hot springs, notably near Sitka, and the hygenic value of the springs was recognized. In recent years more elaborate bathing establishments have been constructed at several accessible hot springs and are much used by local residents, and some hot springs that are more difficult of access are occasionally visited by prospectors as health resorts.”

Sitka Hot Springs

The U.S. Geological Survey identifies 79 thermal springs in Alaska, almost half of which occur along the volcanic Alaska Peninsula, extending out into the Aleutian chain. Hot springs are scattered throughout the Interior and western Alaska, as far north as the Brooks Range and as far west as the Seward Peninsula, but the second greatest concentration is found in the southeast’s Alaskan panhandle. Among the oldest known is Sitka Hot Springs at Goddard.

According to Donald Orth’s Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, Goddard is located on the northeast side of Hot Springs Bay on the west coast of Baranof Island, 15 miles south of Sitka.

It was reportedly established about 1800 by the Russians, who called it Teplyya Tseplitel Yuchya Klyuchi, meaning sheltered curative hot springs. The springs were visited in 1841 by Sir George Simpson, governor in chief of the Hudson Bay Co.’s territories in North America, who wrote of “three snug cottages….employed as a hospital for invalids from Sitka.” In 1908 a post office named Sanitarium was established, but the name was changed to Goddard in 1924, for Dr. F. L. Goddard, a local businessman.

Sitka Hot Springs

Bell Island Hot Springs, 50 miles by water north of Ketchikan, was homesteaded in 1902 by George Roe, who built a bathhouse and several cabins along a boardwalk, developing the springs as a resort for the medicinal use of the water. When he died in 1914 the resort continued under the management of his two brothers.

Tenakee Hot Springs was reported in the 1917 USGS booklet as “one of the best-known of the Alaskan spring resorts,” noting “for 20 years or more the place has been used as a bathing resort by whites, and within the last 10 years a considerable settlement had been built up here, with post office (established in 1903) and supply stores.” The weekly steamer between Juneau and Sitka would regularly stop at Tenakee Hot Springs.

Frank Manley’s Hot Springs Hotel and Natatorium, circa 1909

Far to the northwest, Manley Hot Springs was located just north of the Tanana River, 160 miles west of Fairbanks. Discovered in 1902 by prospector John Karshner, the area became a service and supply point for miners after Karshner began a homestead and developed a vegetable farm. The U. S. Army built a telegraph station on their WAMCATS line, and farming and livestock operations in the area produced fresh meat, poultry, and produce for sale. In 1903, Sam's Rooms and Meals, later called the Manley Roadhouse, opened. In 1907 a miner named Frank Manley built the Hot Springs Resort Hotel, and the Danish polar explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen, of the 1906-1908 Anglo-American Polar Expedition, which established that there was no land north of Alaska, visited while en route to Fairbanks. He wrote, “I had heard much of this place, but I must admit that I was surprised when we came out of the forest and stopped in front of the large, well-built, two-storied log building. It was a splendid place with a nicely furnished dining room, bedrooms, and sitting rooms; a large saloon with a billiard room took up the lower story of the house, and in an annex were baths for men and women. The water came from some hot springs, the temperature of which was 108 degrees Fahr. When cooled it made splendid water to bathe in, and when hot it was used for heating the hotel, the stores, the stables, and some immense chicken-houses in which 1,200 chickens were living the life of warmer climes. Fresh eggs were no rarity at the hotel, no more than fresh chicken and potatoes (twenty tons grew in one summer); cabbages and even corn grow in the warm soil during the summer months. Mr. Manley was proud of his hotel, as in fact he had a right to be.”

Farther north and east, Serpentine Hot Springs was located on the Seward Peninsula, north of Nome, and the waters there have long been sought for their healthful properties. Eskimo shamans and Native healers relied on these waters to help their followers. The Inupiaq word for Serpentine Hot Springs Springs is Iyat, which means “cooking pot” or “a site for cooking,” and for centuries the hot springs have been recognized as a place of spiritual healing and tradition, a quality that continues to be valued and respected by all who visit.

Our Lady of Lourdes church building, abandoned Catholic church at Pilgrim Springs, a former Catholic orphanage serving Inuit children, particularly those orphaned by the influenza epidemic of 1919. Located north of Nome and east of Teller on the Seward Peninsula, the old mission church stands amid meadows and trees, the largest on the Seward Peninsula due to the geothermal oasis.

Photograph from Wikimedia Commons

South of Serpentine, near Teller, the Pilgrim Hot Springs gained prominence in the early 20th century when its thermal hot springs soothed the tired bodies of gold miners from Nome and the surrounding area, and made agricultural homesteading possible. Early log buildings, circa 1900–03, included a cabin, a barn and a chicken house. A roadhouse and saloon were built after 1903, but were destroyed by fire in 1908, after the mining boom had ended. Faced with housing orphans of the flu epidemic of 1918, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nome built a large orphanage at the site, complete with a large church, dormitory and school, and living quarters for the staff, as well as greenhouses, all kept warm by water piped from the hot springs.

Melozi Hot Springs is a group of 20 or so springs along Hot Springs Creek, 30 miles northeast of Ruby. A 1911 U.S. Geological Survey team reported finding a two-room cabin and two small bathhouses on the springs, today the site of a private fly-in wilderness lodge.

Arctic Circle Hot Springs, circa 1938

Arctic Circle Hot Springs, about 100 miles northeast of Fairbanks, was first recorded in 1893 by prospector William Greats, but it had long been used by the indigenous Athabascan, and many gold miners wintered over at the springs when they could not work on the creeks. From the 1917 USGS booklet: “In 1909 the land, including the springs, was homesteaded by F. M. Leach, who has expended much labor in clearing and leveling ground near the springs and in developing the hot spring water for the irrigation of vegetables, especially potatoes. The springs have also been developed to some extent as a bathing resort; but as they must depend on Circle and a few small mining camps for patronage they have no great value for this purpose. The bathing facilities of 1915 consisted of a log bathhouse, containing a dressing room and a pool in an adjoining room. This pool and a similar one at the end of the building (for the use of the natives) have been excavated in the decomposed bedrock. In them the water registered 110˚ F., a comfortable bathing temperature.”

There are many more historic hot springs, along with maps, photos and geologic details, described in the 115 page U.S.G.S. booklet, Mineral Springs in Alaska, by Gerald A. Waring, published in 1917 by the U. S. Government Printing Office. The booklet in PDF format is available to download or read free online: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/0418/report.pdf ~•~