Breitenbush Hot Springs (thermal mineral springs)
Breitenbush Hot Springs, also known as Breitenbusher Hot Springs, is a thermal mineral spring system along the Breitenbush River near the historic town of Breitenbush, Oregon, United States.
History
The hot springs in this geothermal area were used for centuries by the Indigenous people in the region, the Kalapuya, Wasco, and Molalla, for medicinal and spiritual purposes. Settlers began using the springs in the 1840s.In 1873, a Willamette Valley farmer John Minto, a Willamette Valley statesman and farmer began developing a transportation route over the Cascade Mountains, wrote in a 1903 memoire, that Henry States, Frank Cooper, and himself had named hot springs after meeting a one-armed hunter named John Breitenbush, who was camping near the hot springs. In 1938, a man named Frederick Breitenbusher claimed that this was his pioneer father, Lewis Breitenbusher. Since 1873, the shortened name Breitenbush rather than Breitenbusher has been used for the springs.
In 1897, John Hollingsworth began managing the hot springs and in 1904 the upper and lower pools became two separate soaking areas. In the same year a grant for the upper hot springs was issued to Claude Mansfield by president Theodore Roosevelt.
In the 1910s, a Salem resident, Mark Skiff, was issued a Forest Service permit to develop the lower hot springs into a commercial establishment, named Skiff's camp. The upper springs were purchased in 1927, by the Bruckman family who further developed the springs to include a large pool and local amenities. In the 1970s the upper and lower facilities were destroyed in a flood. In 1977, the upper springs were purchased by Alex Beamer, and later rebuilt into a retreat and conference center. The lower springs remain in a primitive state with the remains of the soaking pools as well as natural rock pools.