PORT TOWNSEND — Author Teresa Schoenfell-Lingvall will present the history of the Olympic Hot Springs at the Jefferson County Historical Society’s First Friday Lecture at 7 tonight.
The lecture will be in council chambers at Port Townsend’s historic City Hall, 540 Water St. Admission is by donation.
Now a popular hiking destination, in the 1920s, the Olympic Hot Springs was a resort with a lodge, furnished cabins and a swimming pool.
Originally discovered in 1892 by Andrew Jacobsen, the site was stumbled on by Billy Everett, “Slim” Farrell and Charlie Anderson in 1907 when they were on a hunting trip.
The men began to develop the site, which was opened to the public in 1909 with Everett as the proprietor. The resort was popular and thrived.
In 1940, Olympic National Park annexed the hot springs.
After a heavy snowfall collapsed most of the buildings’ roofs, the resort was closed and the remaining buildings razed in 1966.
All that remains are seven pools that are only a foot deep.
Schoenfell-Lingvall has an insider’s view of the history of the hot springs because her family owned and operated the Olympic Hot Springs resort for 60 years. Her book, “The Olympic Hot Springs,” is available through Arcadia Publishing.
