Wilbur Hot Springs facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Wilbur Hot Springs
Simmons Hot Springs Wilbur Hot Sulphur Springs
The lodge at Wilbur Hot Springs
Location	near the town of Williams, California, Colusa County
Coordinates	39°2′19″N 122°25′15″W / 39.03861°N 122.42083°W / 39.03861; -122.42083
Elevation	1,350 feet (410 m)
Type	geothermal
Temperature	152 °F (67 °C)

Hot salino-sulphurated water emerging from the Elgin Mine at the head of Sulphur Creek

Wilbur Hot Springs, formerly known as Simmons Hot Springs, is a naturally occurring historic hot spring approximately 22 miles west of Williams, Colusa County, in northern California. It is about 2 hours by car northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area. It was developed as a spa in the 19th century, and since its acquisition in the 1970s by therapist Richard Louis Miller, has been operated as a spa resort and personal retreat. The adjacent valley was added to the property as a nature reserve protected by covenant.

Characteristics and water profile

The group of hot springs emerge from the source near Sulphur Creek and Bear Creek. with a flow rate of about 30 gallons per minute. The water temperature ranges from 140 degrees to 152 °F (67 °C). It is at an elevation of 1,350 feet (410 m). Other mineral deposits adjacent to the hot springs include gold, silver, mercury, antimony, thallium, and arsenic as reported by Pearcy and Petersen (1990).

Historically, quicksilver (mercury) mining occurred in the area in considerable operations, the closest mercury mine being the Elgin Mine. The multiple mercury and sulfur deposits in the hot spring area are due to volcanic processes and magma below the surface. Other minerals mined at the Sulphur Creek, approximately one mile upstream from Wilbur Springs, include gold, copper, and sulfur.

The spring water is highly sulphurated. A 1911 report by the United States Geological Survey states that Spring No. 1 is a hot sulphurated spring issuing from a source on the land formerly owned by the Manzanita Mining Company. East of the main source, warm seeps can be found. Spring No. 10, also known as Black Sulphur Spring is located 500 years west of the Wilbur Hotel, and to the east of Spring No. 1. Spring No. 22, also known as the Main Springs, is located 200 yards west of the hotel establishment and discharged at a rate of 21 gallons per minute (30,000 gallons per day). The color of the water as it emerges from the Main Springs is clear yellow due to alkaline sulphides. The 1911 report describes separate men's and women's mud bath houses, located near the Chromatic Spring. The water of the Chromatic Spring fluctuated between reddish purple to bright green to black due to the presence of algae species and mineral content. Spring No. 20 also known as the Catarrh and Complexion Spring emerges from its source located 360 feet east of the Main Springs; the water is highly saline and sulphurated. Spring No. 24, is also known as the Cold Magnesia Spring, and Spring No. 26 is a cold sulfur spring. Spring No. 30, known as the Cold Black Sulphur Spring, is located approximately 375 feet east of the hotel.

By 1976, 12 active springs were reportedly flowing at Wilbur Hot Springs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Division of Geothermal Energy.

While the mineral content differs from spring to spring, overall, the minerals of the spring system recorded in the early 20th-century include sodium potassium, lithium, ammonium, calcium, magnesium, iron, aluminum, sulphate, nitrate, chloride, bromide, iodide, silica, metabolite; gasses include carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. The resort website lists chloride, carbonic acid, sulphate, silicate, lithium, manganese, zinc, sodium, potassium, boron, magnesium, calcium and cadmium based on a report from the USGS.

• Temperature: 152 °F (67 °C)
• Flow: 30 gpm (114 L/min)
• Capacity: 0.6×10⁶ Btu/hr / 0.2 MWt
• Annual Energy: 4.7×10⁹ Btu/yr / 1.4 GWh/yr
• Load Factor: 0.89
• Delta T: 40 °F (4 °C)

Resort

Wilbur Hot Springs is operated as a spa resort on 1,700 acres (690 ha), including a 1,560-acre (630 ha) nature reserve. The property includes a geyser that erupts hourly. Guest accommodations include the lodge, a 3-story hotel dating to 1915, and also cabins and camping sites. The water from the hot springs is cooled for bathing; the resort also offers cool springs, saunas, yoga, and massages. There are two dining rooms and a library. The resort is reached via a dirt road and is off-grid, powered by solar panels.

As of 2018, Wilbur Hot Springs resort is the sole remaining business in the Sulphur Creek Mining District.

History

Wilbur Hot Springs’ history goes back centuries. Before European settlers came, the springs were used by the Patwin, Pomo, Wintun and Colusi – Native American inhabitants of Northern California’s Coast Range mountains. According to local lore, wealthy social activist and congressman General John Bidwell was searching for gold in 1863 when one of his men got deathly sick. Local Native Americans told him about powerful waters, later to be known as Wilbur Hot Springs. Bidwell brought his man to the waters where he was miraculously cured. General John Bidwell went back to San Francisco and Chico (where he owned the best known farm in California) and spread the word of these healing waters.

Throughout America in the late 19th century, hot springs became very popular among those who could afford to stay at fashionable hot springs resorts – and to get there in the first place. Often the journeys were long and arduous – and getting to the Colusa County hot springs, soon to be as renowned as Germany’s Baden-Baden spas, was no exception.

However, European settlers became attracted to the Wilbur Hot Springs area because of minerals – not in the water, but in the ground – first, copper and sulfur, then gold. In 1863, Ezekial Wilbur and Edwin Howell purchased a 640-acre (2.6 km²) ranch for $1,500. Formed to mine copper along Sulphur Creek, their partnership was soon disbanded when copper ore proved difficult to treat and decreased in value. Within eight months, Wilbur purchased Howell’s share of the property for $200, built a wood-frame hotel and announced the opening of ‘Wilbur Hot Sulphur Springs’ in 1865.

Later that year, Wilbur Hot Sulphur Springs was sold to Marcus Marcuse of Marysville. Meanwhile, the reputation of the “miraculous cures” of Sulphur Creek continued to grow. By the 1880s, the European-style health resort built beside the hot springs reached its heyday: Wilbur Springs was known for its scalding hot water springs – “unexcelled for certain diseases” – that boiled up over an area of 100 square feet (9.3 m²). To get there, guests would travel on the Southern Pacific Railroad to Williams, then travel 22 miles (35 km) to the springs, a four-hour trip by stagecoach.

By 1891, however, Wilbur’s fortunes were in decline due to an absentee owner and a better property at Sulphur Creek Village. A mile down the road, Sulphur Creek featured a resort and mining village – this time for gold. With its ramshackle bathhouses and neglected cabins, there was “no hotel worthy of the name” at Wilbur. In 1909, the place became a U.S. Post Office (in service until 1945) and was used as a way station for the local stagecoach. In 1915, the decrepit cabins were razed and Wilbur’s then-owner, J. W. Cuthbert, built the existing concrete hotel, which was one of the first poured concrete buildings in California. Through the decades, the property continued to change hands, first to the Barker family (supposedly of Ma and Pa Barker fame) and then to the Sutcliff family.

Climate

The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Csa". (Mediterranean Climate).