A History of the Comstock Silver Lode & Mines / Nevada and the Great Basin Region; Lake Tahoe and the High Sierras

by Dan De Quille

Steamboat Springs.

The most noted hot springs in the western part of Nevada are those known as the Steamboat Springs. They were so named by the first white men who visited them, on account of the puffing sound some of them then emitted, and because of the tall columns of steam they sent up. These springs are in Steamboat Valley, ten miles south of Reno. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad passes close alongside the springs. They are situated at the eastern base of a low range of basaltic hills, and occupy the top of a flat ridge that is over a mile in length and has a north and south course. This ridge is about half a mile in width and is composed of a whitish silicious material evidently deposited by the waters of the many springs.

The temperature of the principal springs is 204 degrees, which is as hot as water can be made at that altitude (5,000 feet above the level of the sea). Some of the springs rise through circular openings from a foot to three feet in diameter and are surrounded by conical mounds of silicious matters deposited by the waters, whereas others flow from fissures, which are evidently rents formed by earthquakes. Out of some of these fissures rush great volumes of hot gases that have a strong odor of sulphur. These fissures are perfectly dry, and the jets of hot air are invisible. From other dry crevices issue great clouds of very hot steam. Steam rises in great volumes from all the boiling springs, and of mornings when the air is cool and calm from 60 to 80 tall pillars of steam may be counted, rising to a height of 100 feet or more above the low, bare ridge. The air everywhere about the springs is strongly charged with sulphurous vapors in gases. The crevices have the same course as the great quartz veins of the country, i. e., northeast and southwest. Here is no doubt a huge metallic vein in process of formation; indeed, various minerals are deposited by the gases, notably cinnabar. Some of the fissures may be traced from 1,000 to 3,000 feet, and have a width of from 16 inches to 3 feet. In places where nothing is seen to issue from these fissures at the surface, indications of tremendous subterranean activity are distinctly audible. Far down in under-ground regions are heard thunderous surgings and lashings as of huge volumes of water dashed to and fro in vast hollow, resounding caverns. In other places are heard fearful (dry) thumpings and poundings, as though at some flaming forge below a band of sweating Cyclops were at work at hammering out thunder-bolts for old Jove.

Small springs in places send jets of hot water into the air to the height of two or three feet, with a hissing and sputtering sound, but for some years past none of them have thrown water to any great distance above the surface. In 1860, and for a few years thereafter, two or three of the springs rivaled the geysers of Yellowstone Park, sending columns of water a yard in diameter to a height of sixty or eighty feet once in from six to eight hours. Some springs sent columns of water from three to six inches in diameter to a still greater height. Even now the water is seen to rise and fall in some of the fissures in a threatening manner. At the springs is a fine and commodious hotel, bathing-houses for vapor baths, and every desirable accommodation. The springs are very beneficial to persons afflicted with rheumatic complaints, and are also useful in some cases of cutaneous diseases.

Shaw’s Springs.

These springs are situated about a mile west of Carson City. They are also much frequented by persons afflicted with rheumatism and kindred complaints, though more well than sick persons use the baths, as connected with them is a large swimming pool, 60 by 24 feet and from 4½ to 5½ feet deep. One of these springs is what is called a “chicken-soup” spring. By adding pepper and salt to the water it acquires the taste of thin chicken soup.

State Prison Warm Springs.

About a mile east of Carson City, at the Nevada State prison, is a warm spring of great volume. Here Col. Abe Curry, who owned the property before it was acquired by the State, constructed the first swimming bath to be found on the Pacific Coast. It is 160 feet long by 38 feet wide, and is walled up with stone, and over it is erected a building, also of stone, of which there is a fine quarry on the spot. The water in the pool is from three to five feet deep, and is of about blood heat. This bath is not now open to the “world at large,” but is kept for a little world that is “not at large.”

Walley’s Springs.

There are in hundreds of places along the eastern base of the Sierras groups of hot springs of more or less celebrity, but none of which are more highly esteemed for their curative properties, or as a more popular place of resort for the afflicted, than Walley’s Springs, a mile and a half south of Genoa. Persons who are troubled with rheumatism, or are afflicted with scrofula and like disorders, are much benefited by the baths at these springs. Here are also excellent mud baths, the hot, mineral-impregnated mud being found very efficacious in many cases of chronic rheumatic complaints. In the vicinity are many objects of interest, and near at hand may be found good hunting and fishing. There is a fine hotel, and the best of accommodations of every kind for both sound and sick, at the springs. The springs are fourteen and a half miles south of Carson and may be reached either by stage or private conveyance. The road lies through Carson Valley, and is fine and smooth.