Hunters Hot Springs (often stylized as Hunter's Hot Springs) are natural

geothermal Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to: * Geothermal energy, useful energy generated and stored in the Earth * Geothermal activity, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal he ...

springs located in Lake County,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States, north of Lakeview. The springs are named after Harry Hunter, who bought the springs in 1923. The best known feature within the geothermal area is Old Perpetual, which is Oregon's only continuously erupting

geyser A geyser (, ) is a spring with an intermittent water discharge ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. The formation of geysers is fairly rare and is caused by particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Ea ...

. The geyser was formed as a result of a well drilling attempt while Hunter was developing a health resort at the springs.

Springs

The hot springs were discovered in 1832 by trappers from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

, who noted in their journal that the water was unbearably hot.Birkby, Jeff
"Geyser (Hunter's) Hot Spring"
''Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs'', Globe Pequot Publishers, Guilford, Connecticut, 2002, p. 120. They are a small group of

alkali In chemistry, an alkali (; from the Arabic word , ) is a basic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The a ...

ne thermal springs in Lake County's Goose Lake Valley, north of Lakeview. The temperature of the various springs ranges from . The spring water is alkaline with a high concentration of

sulfate The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ...

and other minerals. This environment supports large bacterial mats in the natural channels that drain the springs. As a result, the bacterial mat communities at the hot springs have been studied and analyzed by

microbiologist A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...

s from around the world.

Old Perpetual

The most striking feature at Hunters Hot Springs is a geyser named Old Perpetual. It once released a plume of water into the air every 90 seconds. Because of its former regular and rapid eruption pattern, the geyser was one of Lake County's most popular tourist attractions. The geyser, still heavily promoted by the local Chamber of Commerce as a "must see" destination, stopped erupting for several years after June 2009, possibly due in part to the nearby geothermal development by the Town of Lakeview to supply the Warner Creek Correctional Facility with water for heating. Proposed further development of the site for geothermal power generation purposes threaten the entire hot springs wetlands. , it seems to be regularly erupting again.

Resort

Hunters Hot Springs are named after Harry Hunter, a land developer from

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

who visited the site in 1919 while on a tour of the western United States. In 1923, he purchased the parcel that included the hot springs with the intention of developing a

health resort A destination spa or health resort is a resort centered on a spa, such as a mineral spa. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or mineral springs. In the era before modern biochemistry and pharmaco ...

. He began by organizing Hunter's Chlorine Hot Springs Club, a business established to develop the hot springs as a therapy, rest, and recuperation resort. The club's first president was H. A. Utley and the resort's general manager was Dr. H. G. Kelty. As Hunter started to develop the site in 1923, he was not satisfied with the amount of hot water the springs produced naturally, so he had three wells drilled on the property. To his surprise, all three erupted as hot water geysers. Two of the geysers stopped erupting while Old Perpetual continued every 40 to 120 seconds, depending on the seasonal water table level, until 2009. The original resort building was constructed in 1925. As soon as the facility was finished, Kelty moved his medical practice to the site. A second building was added in 1926. In 1929, Kelty joined four other doctors to open a medical clinic at the site. Together the doctors purchased the hot springs, club facilities and equipment. In November 1929, a restaurant was opened to support their clinic practice. The clinic was sold in 1943. The new owners built a motel and cocktail lounge to complete the resort facilities. In the early 1990s, the outdoor pool was replaced and a racquetball court was added. New owners renovated the resort facilities again in 2000. Today, the resort operates a motel, lounge, and restaurant. The mineral pool is available to guests and the viewing area for Old Perpetual is open to the public.

Name

The springs have long been known as Hunter's Hot Springs, and locals still refer to them that way. The 2000 owner renamed the resort to ''Geyser Hot Springs'', but the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

only recognizes Hunters Hot Springs and the variant name Geyser Hunters Hot Springs.

References

{{Authority control Hot springs of Oregon Bodies of water of Lake County, Oregon