Dr. Carver’s Legacy

In 1909, Dr. Edna Carver stopped at Steamboat Hot Springs while traveling through by train with some of her patients on their way to Seattle. Dr. Carver was an Osteopath who practiced in Denver, and she recognized the potential of Steamboat.

An earthquake had halted the geysers that had been shooting into the air only a few years before. But Dr. Carver believed that although the hot water was not visible at the time, if it had been there, it would still be there.

She decided to acquire the property, and using a drilling rig that was brought in from the old mining town of Bode, California, they struck hot water only thirty feet down. Artesian wells supplied the water for a bathhouse. A small hotel was rebuilt for overnight guests, and a kitchen served healthy, nutritious meals.

Although several fires changed the configuration of the buildings, the operation of the hot springs as a health resort continued from 1918 until Dr. Carver’s death in 1954.