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Olympic Hot Springs Resort was once a popular destination for family vacations. An upcoming class sponsored by the Museum & Arts Center tells its story and tales of other historic lodges and resorts before Olympic National Park was established.
Soon after Cliff Brehan moved to Sequim in 1973, he began collecting postcards of historic buildings once scattered across the North Olympic Peninsula.
Some of the postcards he found at rummage sales, others he discovered at antique stores.
Brehan is an avid collector of antique tokens — metal coins given by merchants for a variety of goods, including discounts on whatever the shop carried.
“I began collecting the postcards because I really like street scenes that show old storefronts, it tied directly into my token collection,” Brehan said. “I like seeing those old shops. It is a real snapshot into everyday life back then.”
Brehan will share a few of those snapshots featuring lodges and resorts once located in the boundaries of Olympic National Park before the park was established in 1938 during a special class sponsored by the Museum & Arts Center in Sequim.
The class will allow participants to journey back in time to the health spas and resorts that once drew the rich and famous to the area to breathe the fresh air and soak in the “healing waters” provided by natural hot springs.
The class will be held at the Old Dungeness Schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road, from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, May 21. A donation of $8 is suggested for members of the Museum & Arts Center. Nonmembers pay $10. People can register for the class at the museum’s exhibit building, 175 W. Cedar St. Advanced registration is suggested, but people can register at the door of the schoolhouse the day of the presentation, if space is available.
Brehan’s presentation will include showing postcards of Sol Duc Hot Sprints Resort from the early 1900s, Olympic Hot Springs Resort from the 1930s and Hotel Crescent, Ovington’s Resort on Lake Crescent and Qui Si Sana Health and Biological Institution throughout the years.“My talk will include information I have found about the old resorts from old books, newspapers and online sources,” Brehan said. “When the museum first asked if I would be interested in giving a talk about my postcard collection I was very hesitant. I am by no means a historian or expert, I am just a guy who likes to collect postcards and find out the history behind the photos on them.”
Brehan said he has learned a lot about the area from his informal research.
“It was amazing to learn just how much effort went into building Sol Duc Hot Springs and Olympic Hot Springs resorts,” he said. “They had to build everything, even the roads leading to the resorts. It was a very creative and a sometimes dangerous process.”
Brehan said the grandeur of Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort was “simply amazing” considering it was built in 1912.
“This was once a fancy place. It had hot and cold water and telephones in each room, which some of the fanciest hotels in Seattle didn’t have at the time,” he said. “They used about two million board-feet of lumber to construct the resort, which would build about 670 standard-size houses today. No expense was spared in creating this luxurious getaway.”
He said the popularity of the healing properties of the hot springs drew people to the resort from across the country and from as far away as Europe.
Another resort establishment story that fascinated Brehan was that of Qui Si Sana Health and Biological Institution, which was located along the banks of Lake Crescent, where Camp David Jr. is today.
“Louis Dechmann, a self-proclaimed physician and biologist, founded Qui Si Sana, a naturopathic facility, in about 1912,” Brehan said. “The resort attracted clients, many of them women, with a regimen of hydrotherapy and careful diet. Old Dechmann would greet guests by handing them an ax to cut wood, saying that it was good exercise. I should open a resort like that. I have plenty of chores around the house.”
Dechmann was described as eccentric by many, but the popularity of the resort continued until about 1917, when he became involved in a dispute with a neighbor over water rights.
Dechmann lost that battle and began fighting another, unrelated one — he was accused by local residents and Seattle authorities of having pro-German sympathies.
Dechmann sold the resort and moved back to Seattle.
“He sounds like quite the character,” Brehan said. “It is definitely one of the more interesting stories I have ran across while researching my postcards.”
Brehan said his presentation will be interesting to anyone who has an interest in local history.
“And it will be pretty informal,” he said. “I will show images of the postcards, talk a little bit about the history of the image and answer questions. I look forward to learning a few things from the audience as well because, even though I have lived here 37 years, I am still considered a newbie by the old-timers.”
For more information about the presentation, phone the Museum & Arts Center at 360-683-8110.
About the resorts:
SOL DUC HOT SPRINGS RESORT
Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort was once a place for the rich and famous to relax and partake in the “healing waters” of the hot springs.
The elaborate resort, built by timber baron Michael Earles, opened in May 1912. Earles credited the warm mineral waters at Sol Duc for curing a fatal illness he was suffering from.
He spent more than a half-million dollars building the 165-room four-star hotel, a three-story 100-bed sanatorium, a large bathhouse, a gymnasium, tennis courts, croquet grounds, golf links and, of course, pools for soaking in the hot springs.
The resort attracted thousands of visitors from as far away as Europe before a fire destroyed most of the complex in 1916.
New lodging facilities were built in subsequent years, which has been a concession of Olympic National Park since 1966, but none matched Earles’ short-lived vacation paradise.
OLYMPIC HOT SPRINGS RESORT
Olympic Hot Springs Resort was once a popular family vacation destination.
The hot springs, like Sol Duc Hot Springs, had been used by local tribes for thousands of years, but was said to be officially discovered by Andrew Jacobson in 1892.
In 1907, the springs were rediscovered by Thomas Farrell, Charles Anderson and William Everett during a hunting excursion.
Everett and his wife built a cabin and a bathhouse.
By 1924, when Harry Schoeffel and his wife, Jeanette, took over management of the property, it was a full-service resort.
The U.S. Forest Service soon built a road to the resort and it became a very popular vacation destination by the 1930s.
A resort existed in the area until 1966, when the lease expired.
Today, Olympic Hot Springs consists of 21 seeps located in a bank on Boulder Creek, a tributary of the Elwha River.
The impounded pools often fail water quality standards for public bathing.
