healing waters of the great spirit

Long before white settlers took their first steps along Soda Creek, the Ute and Arapaho nations considered the hot springs as sacred ground where they could worship and bring their sick and wounded for healing. By the time white settlers arrived looking for gold in the mid 1800s, Soda Creek (which runs in front of the Indian Hot Springs Resort) was considered the dividing line between the Ute and Arapaho nations and had long been treated as neutral ground. By the late 1800s, Harrison Montague had constructed a stone bath house and began calling the region the “Saratoga of the Rocky Mountains.” Fun fact: much of the original structure and even a wooden gazebo from the late 1800s is still in use today. The resort has always been a popular place for visitors traveling throughout the region and over the years played host to plenty of historical figures. Historical records indicate that the resort has been visited by Frank and Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Sara Berhardt, Walt Whitman, Baby Doe Tabor, the Vanderbilts, and the Roosevelts. If you’re looking for us to name drop famous people a little more modern, well, Clint Eastwood, John Denver, John McEuen, Leon Russell, Bo Diddley, and plenty of others have all stopped by to soak with us, too.