Indian Hot Springs: Maybe up to Code, Probably not Expectations.
“Looks like a place where you would get taken.”
After traveling overseas for years and living on the fine line between trust and stupidity, I would have been really upset if I was taken while at a spa in Idaho Springs, Colorado. Besides, New Mexico was at the top of the list for kidnapping, with Colorado only falling into the top five states.
Being taken was not the primary risk that came to mind anyway. After adventuring into this hot spring/spa, I checked into my appointment with a processes that mimicked an Old West brothel. Key in hand and no further guidance, I made my way down to the basement to my assigned spa room. In the low-ceiling corner on the below ground level of the building was a private bath, I saw the risks involving ventilation, electrocution, and being under rubble if there was a small earthquake or completely trapped should there be a fire. I wasn’t sure I would be taken at this place, or if it was more where the taken could be took.
I felt a similar way about risks while on a mining tour over the summer, in the same old west Colorado town.
“What are the safety regulations?” my friend asked during the tour. Our loosely fitting hardhats seemed to only protect us from the hazard of walking into low ledges.
“Well, these mines are privately owned, so not really regulated, but they are safe,” our guide assured us. He was somewhere between highly knowledgeable and repeating what his mine-guide training told him to say. We had already signed the waiver and were halfway into the cavern. Our claustrophobic fears were in our own hands now.
“See that line of sparkle in the wall?” The guide pointed to a glimmering ridge between the otherwise brown rock wall. “The family that owns this mine plans to follow that vein to riches, once they earn enough cash from these mining tours to fund the endeavor.”
Following the tour, I relayed this message to my brother, who lived nearby, “I didn’t know these kinds of mines were still active! Fascinating,” I said in wonder.
“Well, some of the mines around here are active, but that’s actually the same thing the mining tour on the other side of town says too.” he replied.
Both of the owners of the mines were using tours just to build up the funding so the family legacy of riches could once again be pursued. It seemed neither owner wanted to be the part of the lineage that admitted their generation called it on the gold/silver rush in favor of raking in $30 cash per Western Colorado-bound tourist looking for a pitstop where their kids could use the bathroom and buy souvenir rocks.
The “Indian Hot Springs” recognizes its history of a gold-rushed man taking and renaming the hot springs from the Ute and Arapaho tribes and makes no apologies for the overtake or the current name.
Inside the lobby of the spa are black and white photos of its history in which owners through the years took over the hot spring area and moved the outside to the inside by building a hot spring-fed natatorium (aka swimming pool). By the historic photos, it seemed to be a men’s swimming club. There was no reference to a shady, brothel history, however, in the legends of the Colorado Silver Boom, a shady history might not fit the myth of previous glory and a prosperous future, so perhaps it was hidden.
Did anyone really strike it rich in the rush of the Colorado Silver Boom era? Or did the successful ones head out west, see the reality, then pivot to other ventures to make money? The Hotel de Paris in Georgetown was one “success” of the time, a hotel supposedly modeled after a French inn. The hotel was run by a French immigrant who worked in New York City as a writer before he was caught plagiarizing. He found his way in the US Army until he deserted, changed his name to Louis Dupuy, got a job writing in a Denver newspaper, wrote about mining, moved to Georgetown, tried to be a miner himself, then was injured. He finally opened the France-inspired hotel using Georgetown community-raised funds. Was Louis a businessman waiting for his moment or a pragmatic fraudster? Or both?
The myths of Colorado continue into the present day. Is the Indian Hot Springs a great stop to warm up after a cold day of skiing or is it one of Colorado’s most overvalued features? Reddit confirmed my concerned friend’s thoughts on being potentially taken at the location. The reviews also hinted at a potential risqué history in which the spa perhaps catered to different clientele than the Old Western films would have you think:
Colorado has some wonderful hot springs, but Indian Hot Springs is NOT one of them…If you have fantasies about taking a hot dip on the old set of the first Saw movie, then by all means go.
I have met a few hot men there and left to meet later in Denver. If you get lucky, they may have a room at the resort. Crowd: All types, younger, older, married men, skiers.
…weird rundown basement private baths reminiscent of a horror movie makes this stop one you’ll want to forget.
Many of the comments on Trip Advisor gave one star reviews citing annoyance with the spa’s new policy that required bathing suits. The other category of one star comments used the words “horrible,” “lukewarm,” and/or “filthy.”
The hot spring’s latest bulletin, posted front page on the website and in its entrance, was that after working with its insurance company, the spa was finally back to clothing optional from Monday to Thursday in the geothermal caves. They must have listened to the comments from Cruising Gays which cited, “It is not nude anymore. Heard business down about 50%.”
All in all, the private bath temperature was warm towards hot. The ceilings were low. The ventilation was fine for the hour allotted. The comments made it clear to go in with low expectations, while the the Indian Hot Springs true history remains untold.