A Steamboat in the Desert: The Early History of Steamboat Hot Springs, Nevada
by Rita Glover
(Appeared in the March 2010 issue of Healthy Beginnings Magazine.)
“Behold! A Steamboat in the desert!” (Mark Twain, 1861).
The natural geothermal waters of Steamboat Hot Springs a few miles south of Reno, Nevada have attracted people for ages, including famous author Mark Twain. Prior to 1900, the site featured the third largest geyser in the United States, which erupted 60 to 80 feet into the air, surrounded by open pools of boiling hot water. This historical landmark has a notably fascinating past as the location for a Grand hotel, a hospital, a training facility for famous boxers, a therapeutic healing center for a well-known race horse and those searching out relief from their ailments.
Native Americans often located their winter camps along the creek and used the hot spring water for cooking. During the California Gold Rush in 1849, early settlers coming through the Truckee Meadows area found fissures in the ground that emanated steam. The first development of the hot springs was in 1859, consisting of a tiny shed with two rooms, one for a tub and one for steam.
In 1860, more sheds were constructed to capture the steam and artesian spring water. Dr. James Ellis, a hydrotherapist from England, set up a hospital in 1861 using the hot spring water for healing. With the influx of silver miners and money to the Comstock Lode in nearby Virginia City, the site was developed with a hotel, dance hall and saloon, and of course the hot baths. It was described by one visitor as “the onliest joint within a day’s journey where a fellow could rinse his silver-coated person.”
The story goes that Steamboat was named by the famous author Mark Twain, who had become a newspaperman in Virginia City after working as a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River. Riding over the hills to visit the site, he associated the columns of steam rising into the air with the riverboats he had known. He shouted, “Behold! A steamboat in the desert!” and the name stuck.
Steamboat Hot Springs was first a stagecoach stop and later a train station. After the Virginia & Truckee Railroad was built in 1870, Steamboat was only a half-hour train ride from downtown Reno. This train service continued until 1950 when the V&T was shut down. Currently the V&T is being revived, but not planned to be routed through Steamboat.
The water was analyzed in the 1880s and found to contain natural chlorine, sodium, silica, borate, sulfate, carbonate, potassium, lithium, calcium, arsenic, phosphate, antimony, magnesium, alumina, iron, and mercury. Gold and silver content was found in a later analysis. All life on this planet came from mineral salts in geothermal water, which saturate that water to the concentrations found in ancient oceans.
In 1935, state engineer Alfred Merritt Smith wrote about Steamboat Springs: “Geologically, the springs are among the most interesting in the world, for they demonstrate in a striking way how mineral veins and deposits are formed. The hot water is constantly depositing silica, gold, silver, mercury, antimony, and other minerals and metals, which it holds in solution. The silica is held in solution as a jelly-like colloid, and upon the evaporation of the water is deposited as translucent gelatinous silica, which on the surface is gradually dehydrated to become amorphous white sinter. In cracks and crevices, the silica becomes banded chalcedony, or even quartz. The metals are deposited simultaneously with the silica. One of the most beautiful mineral specimens in the well-known Mackay School of Mines Museum at Reno is a mass of intermixed dazzling white silica, crimson cinnabar, and meta-stibnite from Steamboat Springs.”
Illustrious visitors during the mining era included President Ulysses S. Grant and his family. The Grand Hotel was the site of musical concerts, grand balls, and many festive occasions. But on December 10, 1900, an earthquake caused the hot springs and geyser to dry up. Then on April 21, 1901, one of the frequent wildfires in the area burned the hotel and most of the other buildings to the ground.
In 1925, Dr. Edna Carver, DO bought the land, drilled a new well, and built the Pioneer State Health Hotel. She operated a hospital there until another fire leveled it in 1937. It was rebuilt, but burned again in 1942.
Steamboat Hot Springs is now a historical landmark with a significant legacy in the sports world. In 1924, a boxing promoter contracted with the owner to use the spa as a training camp because of the healing properties of the hot mineral water, mud, and steam when applied to his injured boxers.
In 1931, Paolino Uzcudun, a Basque heavyweight boxer, trained at Steamboat. In 1932, King Levinsky, a Chicago heavyweight, trained here with Jack Dempsey. Uzcudun and Levinsky were both preparing for 20-round bouts with Max Baer. Jack Dempsey was in a fight that was held at Steamboat during this period. In 1936 Ray Impelliterre used the ring at Steamboat to train for a bout in San Francisco.
In the horse racing world, the champion Man o’ War was brought to Steamboat in the 1940s to take its waters and muds after he had sustained serious injuries, and the horse returned to win the Kentucky Derby after many thought he would never race again.
Around 1940, in an attempt to attract financing to build a major resort at Steamboat Springs, Dr. Carver wrote a prospectus detailing the thermogenic healing uses of the water, and the use of the mineral mud for the treatment of many disorders. These included arthritis, sciatica, rheumatism, phlebitis, arteriosclerosis, blood diseases, stomach disturbances, myocitis, lumbago, neuritis, neuralgia, gout, paralysis, Bright’s disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, cirrhosis of the liver, throat and sinus problems, nervous disorders, imperfections of the complexion, metallic poisoning, alcoholism, drug addiction, blood diseases such as pernicious anemia and leukemia, malaria, colds, obesity, constipation, overeating, under-exercise, and recuperation following illness.
Dr. Carver’s prospectus noted the accessibility of Steamboat from all parts of the country via air, car, or rail, and the skiing, hunting, and fishing activities, which abound nearby. She envisioned a large resort with Spanish-style architecture. Visitors can find that today and can take advantage of the incomparable healing waters that have been renowned through history. It’s always been about the water.
References:
Weld, Roger Bown. A Steamboat in the Desert: A History of Steamboat Springs, Nevada. Published by the International Community Guilds, Reno (1998). Available at Steamboat Hot Springs.
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