McCredie Springs are hot springs and a former resort in
Lane County, Oregon
Lane County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 382,971, making it the fourth-most populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Eugene. It is named in honor of Joseph Lane, Orego ...
, United States. It is located near
Oregon Route 58
Oregon Route 58 (OR 58), also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18 (see Oregon highways and routes), is a state highway in the U.S. state of Oregon. The route, signed east–west, runs in a southeast–northwest direction, connecting U.S. R ...
(OR 58), east of
Oakridge, and east of
Eugene, within the
Willamette National Forest
The Willamette National Forest is a National Forest located in the central portion of the Cascade Range of the U.S. state of Oregon.
It comprises . Over 380,000 acres (694 mi2, 1,540 km2) are designated wilderness which include seven ...
.
It is known for the nearby natural hot springs along
Salt Creek.
History
Frank Warner, a trapper, came upon a series of hot springs along Salt Creek and settled near them in 1878.
He lived in the cabin he built there until he was evicted by the newly formed
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
(USFS) in the early 1900s.
In 1911, John Hardin filed a
mineral claim on the land, ostensibly because of the salt found there, but he actually wanted to build a resort on the land leased from the USFS.
He named the place Winino Springs and opened a hotel in 1914.
[ ]William Wallace McCredie
William Wallace "W. W." McCredie (April 27, 1862 – May 10, 1935) was a U.S. Representative from Washington.
Early years
Born in Montrose, Pennsylvania, McCredie moved to Iowa with his parents, who settled on a farm near Manchester in Delaware ...
known as "Judge", bought the lease from Hardin to build a springs resort in 1916,Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
baseball club, the Portland Beavers
The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL.
Franchise history
Many baseball teams ...
.[ The compiler of '']Oregon Geographic Names
''Oregon Geographic Names'' is a compilation of the origin and meaning of place names in the U.S. state of Oregon, published by the Oregon Historical Society. The book was originally published in 1928. It was compiled and edited by Lewis A. McArth ...
'' believed the name was of Native American origin, but could not find a definition.[ The office was closed during the time the ]Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
(now Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
) Cascade Line was being built, on December 31, 1925, with mail going to Railhead.[ The resort came be known as McCredie Springs.][ McCredie Springs post office operated intermittently from September 14, 1926, until October 2, 1953.][
The Southern Pacific railroad servicing the area was built in 1923. During its heyday in the 1930s, the resort was served by five Southern Pacific passenger trains each day which increased its poularity.]Christmas flood of 1964
The Christmas flood of 1964 was a major flood in the United States' Pacific Northwest and some of Northern California between December 18, 1964, and January 7, 1965, spanning the Christmas holiday.
Considered a 100-year flood,
it was the wors ...
destroyed the bridge that provided access to the springs and damaged the swimming pool.[ No services remain onsite, however there is a toilet in a nearby parking lot.]
Hot springs
McCredie Hot Springs are hot spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...
s located at , across OR 58 from the community, by the banks of Salt Creek.
Water profile
The geothermally heated mineral water emerges from the ground at per minute at a temperature of .
Further reading
*
See also
*List of hot springs in the United States
__NOTOC__
This is a dynamic list of hot springs in the United States. The Western states in particular are known for their thermal springs: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyomin ...
References
External links
Historic Images of McCredie Springs
from the University of Oregon Libraries
Historic images of McCredie Springs
from the Lane County Historical Society
{{authority control
Hot springs of Oregon
Portland Beavers
Spa towns in Oregon
Unincorporated communities in Lane County, Oregon
Unincorporated communities in Oregon