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This cache was placed by my 7yr old daughter Kalista. It is an easy roadside stop and grab. There is even a little pull off to park in just down the road a little bit from the cache site. You are looking for an ammo box filled with lots of goodies for kids and adults.
When the Civil War ended, Confederate battlefield surgeon Dr. Andrew J. Hunter and his wife, Susannah, moved west with their three children. In 1870, Dr. Hunter established squatters rights for a piece of land north of the Yellowstone River in Montana Territory. On this land gushed a natural hot spring. The geothermally-heated water he found there was rich in sulphur and iron, and Dr. Hunter decided this would be a perfect place to settle with his family and build a theraputic spa and resort.
After much early hardship, including Indian attacks, Hunter's family eventually thrived at the hot springs and three more children were born to the Hunters. By 1873, Hunter had constructed an hotel and bath-houses at the springs and soon guests began to arrive seeking the much-touted medicinal properties of the waters. Over the next twelve years improvements at Hunters townsite continued and other families settled there. Dr. Hunter's resort flourished. Hunters Hot Springs reputation expanded and the spa entertained guests and customers from across the United States and Europe. As well, HHS had a loyal core group of patrons from Livingston, Billings, Miles City, Bozeman and Butte in Montana. During the mid-1880's, the resort became a popular overnight spot with crews from the Northern Pacific Railway. The NPR station at Springdale, Montana was just a mile and a half south from Hunters.
The resort became so successful that Frank Rich, son-in-law to Dr. Hunter, built another hotel about a hundred yards east from the Hunters Hot Springs Hotel to handle the overflow of customers. This was the Rich Hotel, often called the Lower House, while Dr. Hunter's hotel was referred to as the Upper House, or Upper Hotel, because it was on slightly higher ground.
In the winter of 1885, Dr. Hunter sold the Hunters Hot Springs Hotel and spa to former Iowan Cyrus B. Mendenhal. Mr. Mendenhall expanded and improved the resort and continued to manage the property for ten years. Mendenhall sold the property in 1895 to a group of three investors: Gagnon, Nickey and Tong. Within two years these investors fell on hard times and the Hunters Hot Springs Hotel went into receivership. The property was purchased at auction by wealthy Butte-based businessman James A. Murray in 1897. Almost immediately after Murray acquired the Hunters Hot Springs Hotel, he leased the property to Charles W. Savage, an hotelier based in Livingston, Montana.
1909 saw the construction of the Hotel Dakota at Hunters Hot Springs. The huge Dakota structure was built on the site where the Rich Hotel had once stood. Over 450 feet long and capable of accommodating 300 guests, the Dakota was luxurious, boasting steam heat, electric lights and telephones in the rooms. In 1911, the original Hunters Hot Springs Hotel was condemned and was later torn down. Fire broke out at the Hotel Dakota in 1932 and it, along with many other structures at the HHS townsite, burned to the ground. The town never recovered and was gradually abandoned.
The debris from the 1932 fire lay unattended until 1948, when Charles and Anna Johnson acquired the property at Hunters Hot Springs. The Johnsons cleared the debris from the fire and built a quonset hut over the hot springs with a plunge and a lunchroom at one end of the modest structure. The area again became a popular spot. After Charles passed away, Anna Johnson continued to operate HHS until her death in 1959. The Johnson's son, Harold, purchased the HHS property from his mother's estate and ran the resort with his wife, Mavis, until 1974. In 1974, high winds tore the roof from the quonset hut and Hunters Hot Springs was abandoned once again.
There is very little archealogical evidence remaining at HHS today. A few bricks are left from the Hotel Dakota retaining wall, some concrete foundations of the bath-houses survive, a well from the old post office site is barely visible, the Hunters Hot Springs graveyard remains and, of course, the hot springs are still there.
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