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 The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

Indigenous people used the hot springs for centuries before the arrival of Anglo-european fur trappers in the 18th century. The springs were later used by Spanish settlers, pioneers and Mexican ranchers. 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. 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." 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. The original hotel, built in 1889 on the 160-acre site 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. The third and final hotel, a four-story brick structure was built in 1913, reopened in 1914."Byron Hot Springs Resort."
lostamerica.com In 1906, the Byron Hot Springs Hotel was one of a small handful of 5-star hotels in California. An advertisment in the Byron Times from 1913 called the resort "America's unequal spa". 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.” In the 1920s it was a popular destination for wealthy patrons, celebrities and business tycoons. 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

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and rheumatism. Following a series of lawsuits, the resort closed in 1938. In 1941 the government leased the site and turned it into a

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

interrogation camp, known as "Camp Tracy" that housed both German and Japanese

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. In 1945, orders were sent to dismantle it. During its active years of operation, Camp Tracy interrogated over 3,500 Japanese prisoners of war. In 1947 Byron Hot Springs was purchased by the

Greek Orthodox Church The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also call ...

for the sale price of $105,000. It served as Monastery St. Paul for a number of years. The property then was bought and sold several times, serving as a resort, country club, and private residence. 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

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-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. 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. In 2008, a developer announced plans to restore the resort.

Water profile

In 1980

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recorded the temperature of the hot spring water at . 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. 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.

Gallery

File:Byron Hot Springs brochure, c. 1878.png, Byron Hot Springs brochure, c. 1878

References

Bibliography

Jensen, Carol A. and the East Contra Costa Historical Society. ''Byron Hot Springs'', 2006, {{ISBN, 9780738547008. Hot springs of California Geothermal areas Balneotherapy Bodies of water of Contra Costa County, California