Utah Hot Springs Resort

 

Located at Hiway 89 and Pleasant View Drive, Pleasant View, Utah. Built in the late 1800s but destroyed by fire.

Utah Hot Springs Resort

 

Utah Hot Springs Resort
“The Great Cure of the West”

Prior to the Anglo-American settlement, the Native American people used the hot springs for medicinal purposes, including healing and bathing.

Rhees H. Slater established a resort on the same location and named it “The Utah Hot Springs Resort” or “The Great Cure of the West”.  , The spring produced some 750,000 gallons of water a day at 144 degrees.  He established a campground to the North-East, and the bathing accommodations were top-rated. There were several private tubs and a vapor steam bath. It had an outside swimming pool 166 ft wide and 204 ft long. There was also a hotel offering 207 rooms for rent, including a dining and dancing area. The Railroad established a regular station at the resort with a fare of $.50 for a round trip from Ogden. The Railroad siding became an important part of the Pleasant View economy, assisting fruit growers and honey producers in getting their products to a wider market in shorter time periods.

Two fires, one in the 1920s and the other in 1930, destroyed the resort. Both times it was rebuilt. It had large indoor and outdoor pools in those days and was perhaps best known for its tall slippery slide at the outdoor pool. The resort lasted until the late 1960s when new ownership closed the resort to the public, and eventually, it was torn down in the 1970s.

Although the resort is long gone and has been closed for more than three decades, the newest Utah state highway map still identifies its historical location as “Hot Springs.”

Below is a presentation of the November 3, 2022, General Membership meeting of the Heritage Foundation. The topic was the Utah Hot Springs “Then & Now.” The meeting, attended by over 50 people, provided information about the history of the area of Utah Hot Springs from Native American times through today. Some information presented had never been noted about the Hot Springs. 

Thanks especially to Mike Humphreys, who has been associated with Utah Hot Springs since his youth. As a General Contractor, he was hired to tear down and level the area in the 1970s. He kept some relics found while he worked at the site. 

We have for your reviewing pleasure three outstanding, information-laden presentations about the Utah Hot Springs. They are: 

  1. A PowerPoint slide of the presentation made at the November 3 meeting;
  2. A video of Mike Humphreys telling of his experiences during demolition (found on our Facebook page)
  3. Last but not least, read the “Forgotten History of the Ogden Hot Springs” as written by Audrey M. Godfrey.

Utah Hot Springs - Then and Now

Enjoy the PowerPoint presentation and then click on the button below to watch a video of Mike Humphreys telling of his contract to demolish the buildings at the Utah Hot Springs in 1970. The complete presentation is well worth your time. The link will take you to our FaceBook page. Enjoy!

The Forgotten History of the Ogden Hot Springs

as written by Audrey M. Godfrey