Byron Hot Springs
Mead's Hot Salt Springs
Postcard of Lewis Mead and a woman thought to be his first wife, at Byron Hot Springs, pre-1905
Location1.5 miles south-southeast of Byron, California
Coordinates37°50′54″N 121°38′00″W / 37.84833°N 121.63333°W / 37.84833; -121.63333
Typegeothermal
Temperature96 °F (36 °C)
Second Byron Hot Springs Hotel, 1901–1912

Byron Hot Springs is a hot spring system consisting of 57 spring sources. It was developed into a historic resort and retreat. During its heyday in the early 1900s the resort attracted movie stars and well-known athletes. It is now abandoned.

History

The Bolbone band of Ohlone Indigenous people used the hot springs for centuries before the arrival of Anglo-european fur trappers in the 18th century.[1] The springs were later used by Spanish settlers, pioneers and Mexican ranchers.[2]

The hot springs were first developed in 1865, 13 years before the establishment of the town of Byron, California. The Southern Pacific Railroad served the Byron Hot Springs depot, with seven stops per day.[3] Around 1878 a 10-page brochure was published advertising the hot springs and their "curative waters" as "preeminently the natural sanitarium of California and the Pacific Coast."[3]

Lewis Mead opened the resort in 1889, as Mead's Hot Salt Springs, and built the first hotel at the site of 57 hot sulfurous salt springs.[4][3]

The original hotel, built in 1889 on the 160-acre site[5] included a three-story wood building, with a few cottages scattered nearby, as well as a laundry, gas plant and ice plant, all of which were destroyed by fire on July 25, 1901. A second hotel, a three story stucco Moorish-style structure was constructed 1901–1902. In 1912, the entire wood-framed property burned to a "mass of ashes", and the final hotel was built from concrete and fireproof brick.[5] The third and final hotel, a four-story brick structure was built in 1913, reopened in 1914.[6][7]

In 1906, the Byron Hot Springs Hotel was one of a small handful of 5-star hotels in California.[2] An advertisment in the Byron Times from 1913 called the resort "America's unequal spa".[5] A 1911 advertisment in the same newspaper claimed that the mineral water had curative properties, stating "the water and baths of this spa of the west are a panacea for all ills.”[5]

In the 1920s it was a popular destination for wealthy patrons, celebrities and business tycoons.[8] The hotel grounds were landscaped with palm trees and neatly kept lawns. The resort amenities provided soaks in the mineral water and mudbaths which were claimed to relieve various ailments including neuritis and rheumatism.[5]

Following a series of lawsuits, the resort closed in 1938. In 1941 the government leased the site and turned it into a military interrogation camp, known as "Camp Tracy" that housed both German and Japanese prisoners of war.[7] In 1945, orders were sent to dismantle it.[9][2] During its active years of operation, Camp Tracy interrogated over 3,500 Japanese prisoners of war.[5]

In 1947 Byron Hot Springs was purchased by the Greek Orthodox Church for the sale price of $105,000. It served as Monastery St. Paul for a number of years.[5] The property then was bought and sold several times, serving as a resort, country club, and private residence.[3]

In 1956, the Oakland Tribune reported that plans were in the works for the "famed mecca for tourists and mineral bath devotees" to revive the resort after having been repurposed during WWII by the military and later the Greek Orthodox Church. Dr. E.E. Percore, an Alameda-based chiropractor formed a corporation to revitalize the site "in four to six months." At that time the resort property covered 209 acres, and 53 buildings on site, including a 52-room former hotel. The proposed renovaton would restore the hotel, mud baths, indoor and outdoor warm mineral water swimming pools, a nine-hole golf course, and other amenites.[10]

In 2005, a Victorian-style carriage house on the site burned to the ground in a fire. The abandoned hotel was also damaged in the fire, but is still standing.[3] In 2008, a developer announced plans to restore the resort.[11][5]

Water profile

In 1980 NOAA recorded the temperature of the hot spring water at 96 °F (36 °C).[12] In her book on Byron Hot Springs, writer Carol A. Jensen describes the water as "hot, sulfurous and salty," emerging from the ground at a range of 80-to-100°F.[3]

In 1889, Dr. Winslow Anderson's analysis in his essay, Mineral Springs and Health Resorts of California reported the mineral ingredients of the spring water to contain: Sodium Chloride, Sodium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride, Magnesium Carbonate, Calcium Chloride, Silica and various trace minerals.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Byron Hot Springs Resort". Lost America. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Fehr, Dawnmarie (5 May 2022). "Byron Hot Springs may get some repairs". The Brentwood Press. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jensen, Carol A. (2006). Images of America: Byron Hot Springs. San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 0-7385-4700-X.
  4. ↑ Pereira, Alyssa (19 March 2018). "Wild history of East Bay 'haunted' landmark: Parties, a train crash, and hot springs interrogations". SFGate. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Yoon-Hendricks, Alexandra (22 February 2022). "Abandoned California Delta hotel once served as WWII interrogation center". The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  6. ↑ "Byron Hot Springs Resort.", lostamerica.com
  7. 1 2 Bendix, Aria (31 October 2019). "An abandoned hotel in California was once a popular destination for Hollywood celebrities. Now some think it's haunted". Business Insider. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  8. ↑ Fehr, Donamarie (23 March 2023). "Bureaucracy blocks repairs to historic building". Brentwood Press. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  9. ↑ Corbin, Alexander D (2009). The History of Camp Tracy: Japanese WWII POWs and the Future of Strategic Interrogation. Ft Belvoir: Ziedon Press. ISBN 9780578029795. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  10. ↑ "Plans Made to Revive Famed Byron Hot Springs". Oakland Tribune. 1 May 1956. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  11. ↑ Fagin, Kevin (November 9, 2008). "Developer has grand plan for crumbling resort". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  12. ↑ Berry, George W.; Grim, Paul J.; Ikelman, Joy A. (1980). Thermal Spring List for the United States. Boulder, Colorardo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. p. 14. doi:10.2172/6737326. Retrieved 20 November 2023.

Bibliography

Jensen, Carol A. and the East Contra Costa Historical Society. Byron Hot Springs, 2006, ISBN 9780738547008.

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