OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The warm mineral waters of the Sol Duc Hot Springs have long drawn people seeking to soak away their aches and pains, or just enjoy the water and the view.
On Saturday and Sunday, the resort, which is a part of Olympic National Park, will celebrate the centennial of the May 15, 1912, opening of the first resort at the natural springs, where geothermal heated waters bubble to the surface near the Sol Duc River.
The resort off U.S. Highway 101, 40 miles west of Port Angeles at 12076 Sol Duc Hot Springs Road, features three mineral hot spring soaking pools and one freshwater pool, with temperatures ranging from 85 to 105 degrees, a restaurant, rental cabins and a campground.
The anniversary celebration will be hosted by Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort, the National Park Service and the Clallam County Historical Society, and will include food, entertainment and a display on the history of the hot springs.
Michael Earles, a timber baron, opened the first Sol Duc Hot Springs hotel in 1912. It burned in 1916.
In 1966, the National Park Service purchased Sol Duc Hot Springs and started construction, which was completed in the 1980s.
Kathy Monds, executive director of the Clallam County Historical Society, will be at the resort from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday to explain the display and answer questions about the resort’s history.
The display will include photos of an early 20th-century excursion to the hot springs, a crate and bottles used for the sales of mineral water from the springs, and other items from the luxury resort built in 1912.
A Stanley Steamer Mountain Wagon, similar to the ones early visitors would have ridden in for the last part of their two-day journey to the hot springs, will be on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Ranger Greg Marsh will lead a two-hour hike to Sol Duc Falls at
10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday. Hikers should meet at the trailhead.
Musical duo Hazelnut Grove is scheduled to perform from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, while Deadwood Revival will perform from 1 p.m. to
4 p.m. Sunday.
An additional fee will be charged only for a chicken and ribs barbecue.
The barbecue, available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, will cost $9.95 per plate.
“The hotel catered to the upper class,” Monds said.
Photos show gentlemen in suits and ladies wearing long, cream-colored dresses and cream boots, hiking across logs, through muddy trails or sitting in riverside hammocks reading.
Rates at the resort were considered “reasonable” at $2.50 per day, Monds said, during an era when the average annual income was $564 and a typical home cost $5,935.
To celebrate the resort’s one-century mark, the resort is offering a special $100-per-night cabin rate.
Entry to the hot springs and scheduled events is free with cabin rentals
Daily entry to the hot springs, open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., is $12.25 for adults, $9.25 for children 4-12 and $9 for seniors and military members. Children 3 and younger are admitted free with limited pool access.
After 7 p.m., the entry fee is reduced to $9.25 for adults.
The Sol Duc has been used for soaking by native tribes, settlers and early tourists drawn to the hot springs for the sulfurous waters’ supposed “healing powers.”
The name “Sol Duc” is a mispronunciation of the Quileute name for the river and means “sparkling water.”
In the early 1880s, Theodore Moritz, an early settler on the Quillayute River, was the first European-American to be introduced to the hot springs by a tribal member.
Moritz filed a homestead claim on the land surrounding the hot springs and invited others to the location.
Tales of the hot springs’ curative properties soon began drawing visitors to the site, and Moritz built a primitive bathhouse, wood-floored tents and a dining room for his guests.
In 1903, Earles visited the springs and purchased an option to buy the property.
When Moritz died in 1909, Earles purchased the property and in 1912 opened a 164-room, five-star hotel and resort — all of which stood for only four years before it burned to the ground.
“It was immense,” Monds said.
To build the resort, a sawmill was first located on-site to mill the lumber to build the buildings, she said.
Pamphlets of the time referred to it as a “metropolitan hotel in the wild.”
Monds said the resort grew its own vegetables and raised cattle and chickens for its restaurants.
The original luxury resort drew thousands of visitors from the U.S. and Europe, Monds said.
New buildings replaced the destroyed structures, but nothing that followed approached the luxury of Earles’ short-lived resort, she added.
The weekend’s celebration “illustrates the timeless value of Olympic National Park’s resources,” said Todd Suess, acting park superintendent.
“The staff of Olympic National Park joins Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort in celebrating their first century of welcoming and serving resort-goers.”
Aramark Parks and Destinations operates the resort for the park.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
