Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort Centennial By Pat Farrell
The Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort is located in the beautiful Olympic National Park. Sol Duc in Indian means "land of sparkling waters." A lumber baron from Port Angeles, Washington, Michael Earles took two years to build the original Sol Duc Hot Springs Hotel, with it finally opening in 1912. The hot mineral waters were thought to cure rheumatism, liver diseases, alcoholism, and other disorders. The new four-story, 165-room hotel sported a telephone in every room and a large veranda encircling three sides. A row of guest cabins lined the west hillside of the narrow mountain canyon. The nearby 100-bed sanatorium featured medical staff, an operating room , and the Northwest's first X-ray machine. The on-site lumber mill provided all of the lumber needs for the construction of the new community. In a wider valley just a little ways down the Sol Duc River from the hotel, the resort grew their own vegetables and raised their own poultry and dairy products.
As many as 10,000 guests each summer sipped the mineral waters and soaked in hot baths. Horseback riding, tennis, croquet, bowling, theater hall, and an orchestra with dancing ensured a full agenda. After only four years of grandeur, sparks from a defective flue set a cedar roof afire in May of 1916. Within only a few hours most of this magnificent resort, along with their bottling company and lumber mill, had burned to the ground.
After the 1916 fire, nothing was rebuilt to anywhere close to the original grandeur of the original resort. Several resort operators had come and gone until the government purchased the site in 1966. New cabins were built in the 1970's and the present lodge was built in the mid 1980's. For lodging there are presently 33 cabins available for guests. Since 2005, Aramark Parks and Destinations have managed the resort.
From the 1912 photos, there appears to have been about seven Sol Duc Stanley Mountain wagons working the final fourteen miles from Lake Crescent to their resort. Also, operating out of a different transportation business in nearby Port Angeles were more Stanley Mountain Wagons working in conjunction with the Sol Duc's Mountain Wagons on the scenic evergreen tree-lined mountain routes.
The Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort, which first opened their Olympic mountains hotel in 1912, requested at their centennial celebration a Stanley Mountain Wagon like what was first used to haul their guests to their hot springs resort. Our 1916 Stanley Mountain Wagon filled their Stanley Mountain Wagon request, and it was admired by hundreds of Sol Duc tourists during their May 5 and 6, 2012, centennial celebration.
Arriving at noon on Friday, May 4, my wife Merrily and I put on our swim suits and were quick to slip into the hot springs. At about 400 feet above our 1,460-foot elevation, fluffy white snow was falling and painting the canyon's evergreen trees a snowy white. After adjusting to the warmth of the hot springs, our bodies' first sensation was the slippery feel of the water on our skin. Silica in the water gave our skin a smooth, slippery feel. Hours later as we walked to the dressing rooms, our old bodies truly felt about ten years younger.
For Friday night's dinner, we were well fed with fresh sturgeon. That evening we took a refreshing hike up the west side of the Sol Duc River on Lover's Lane and enjoyed looking at all that nature had for provided us. After our long hike, our Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort cabin's night's rest was heavenly.
Saturday morning, we steamed our Mountain Wagon on a small tour up to the Sol Duc Falls trail head. On the way to the trail head, ancient evergreen trees of about six feet in diameter stood along the snow-spotted shoulders of the mountain road. In the cold early morning air, our Mountain Wagon laid down a carpet of white condensate, which looked thick enough to almost to be able to walk on. On our return trip back down the mountain road, our white, cotton-like condensate was still covering the mountain roadbed as if we had left only minutes earlier. Deer, squirrels, birds, and more could be seen moving about in the surrounding forests and meadows.
During Saturday's celebration, hundreds of guests took photos of our Stanley Mountain Wagon, and they had many questions like "was this one of the same Mountain Wagon used here in 1912? Are these tires solid rubber? Did you buy this new? How fast does it go? Does it run? . . ." Then there were the guests who had valuable information like: "Gordon Decker of Forks said that his Grandfather buried three Stanley Mountain Wagons here while they were cleaning up after the 1916 fire." Another fellow said that he has a Stanley engine at home and along with eight full barns of collectibles, and that I should stop by and take a look. Another fellow said that he had purchase a silver-clad knife off of e-Bay that said "Sol Duc Hot Springs" on it, and it had a Stanley Mountain Wagon showing on each side with scarves flying from the passengers' costumes. Another fellow showed us a photo of his huge lumber planer that had come out of the resort's sawmill, and it had been in the fire.
Saturday evening we hiked up the easy trails on the other east side of the Sol Duc River, passing through campgrounds and marveling at the giant evergreen trees and the beautiful views throughout the woods.
On a sunny Sunday morning we found time to do some more morning touring in the area. Resort manager Duncan Allinson rode with us in our Mountain Wagon, and along the way we paused to take photos with the Mountain wagon in the different campgrounds. The rest of the morning we did "show and tell" with our Stanley Mountain Wagon. The crowds had greatly diminished by Sunday afternoon and we headed back home early.
This was one of our best Stanley steamer adventures yet.

Thanks so mutch for sharing this with us all,,It sounds like a weekend to remember,,
and without incident,,
Does this look like it could be turned into an annual event??
I still have fond memories of you and Merrily at the MtWashington meet in 1999
in the blue Stanley,,,Best regards,,,Ben

Dear Ben, The Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort Centennial only comes around once every hundred years. We will have to wait another 100 years for their Bicentennial. As far as steam car tours, the wife and I are off to a car tour every other week end all this summer and fall. "The most important tour this year will be the "Covered Bridges of Oregon Steam Tour" starting the first week of August.
Our 1914 Stanley 606 Roadster is already loaded up for a car show/ swap meet/ and short tour in Omak, Washington ths week end. Leaving Friday mornng for that one.
If the price of gas would drop below $3 a gallon, then we could afford to go to Mike Roach's Iowa Steam car tour in August. At the present price for gasoline to get to and from Iowa, it would cost us over $2,000.

I wanted to briefly share with you the experience of touring in a Stanley. Steaming through the big woods on a cool morning with the chill of the morning air on our faces, it makes us want to fasten up our jackets to the top buttons. While climbing the mountain grade, the birds are heard singing in the trees about us as the quiet chuff, chuff of the Stanley engine is in the background. The sweet smell of the spring flowers is gently hidden by the fresh evergreen fragrance of the giant fir trees. The scenery is gliding by us is better than if we were on a Disneyland boat ride in one of their theme parks. As we scan the lofty tree tops about us, we can only guess that these are the same views that the the fur trappers must have seen two hundred years ago when they first ventured into the Olympic mountains. As we coast to the turn-around spot at the Sol Duc Falls trail head, only the single click of the reversing pedal is heard from the Stanley mountain Wagon as the we quietly glide back out and turn around to return to the park's lower elevations. The thick fog bank that we had left on the roadbed on our assent, is still hovering over the road like a white blanket of fog covering the earth. See the attachment. A steam car is truly an amazing vehicle.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2012 04:55PM by SSsssteamer.

AAAAhh Sweet bliss,,,
NO burner howl ,,,
Cheers,,Ben

Dear Ben, There was a burner howl only when we first steamed up from cold. No burner howl was heard while we were out on the mountain road because the park's speed limit was between 15 to 30 MPH and the burner hardly had to be on to maintain this low speed, so I had the main fuel valve turned almost off. Also we were running light because of only 3 passengers, less than half of a 40 gallon fuel tank, and only one water tank was full. At 40 mph and up, especially on a cold morning, its Baker burner can put out quite an errie howl to maintain it's boiler's steam pressure.