OregonScape

Abstract

OREGONSCAPE WHERE THE SOUTH FORKOF THE Santiam Rivermeets Soda Creek, fourteen miles east of Sweet Home, Oregon, lies Cascadia Mineral Springs, a cold-flowing soda spring that was a popular resort destination forOregonians during the early twentieth century. In 1895, George M. Geisendorfer, suffer ingfromtuberculosis,bought the landwith thespringsfromhomesteader John A. Bletch. Influenced by anAmerican infatuation with thehealthpropertiesofmineral spring water,Geisendorferhoped his illness would be curedbyhis own springs. The followingyear,he opened theCascadia Mineral Springs resort to the public, and it soon became, as the Oregonian newspaper raved on September 7,1913, "one of the most delightfulsummer resortsin Oregon." In itsheyday, from 1910to 1930,theresortfeatureda thirty-room hotelbuiltbyGeisendorferhim self with timberharvestedfrom the land,a bath house with hot and coldwater, a camping area that could hold 1,000 guests, fifteen vacation cabins, stables for eighty horses, a grocery store with the only telephone in the area, and a post office. An average of 1,000 people a week vacationed at the resort. This photograph of theCascadia Mineral Springswas taken inabout 1899.Guests sitaround the springs, which arevisible inthelowerright-hand corner.FormervisitorJohn Gross recalledforthe Orego nian on July24,1949, the "three-a-day" system that Cascadia vacationers followed to get the curative effects of the waters: "You came down to the springs, in groups as a rule, and each with your own tin cup. With brimming cups you would sit about on the benches, drinking and chatting_There was never any hurry. In this way thespringsthemselves became a kind of social centerandmany people got acquainted_ You did thisfirst earlyafter breakfast,thenagain afterthenoon dinner,and finallyaftersupper." Cascadia Mineral Springswas open to thepublic fornearly forty-five years,butGeisendorfer lost significant businessduring the GreatDepression, and theincreasing ease of automobile travel meant that guestsstayedforjustdays insteadofweeks.On February22,1941, he sold thepropertyto thestate, which removed thehotel and outbuildings and established thearea as itisknown today, Cascadia StatePark. ? Megan K. Friedel,formerOHS Research LibraryArchivist ...