Frontier Spa

A few miles outside Miles City in 1956 Shell Oil drilled 8,230 feet before all Hell broke loose. Instead of oil they struck a vein of hot, high pressure water, the same for which Yellowstone Park is famous.

From April to June the drillers sought to plug it, for they were convinced that oil lay beneath the steamy layer. On 7 June drilling resumed, only to blow again at 8,256 feet deep. On the third attempt, the Fourth of July, the geyser erupted like a patriotic rocket from a depth of 8, 840 feet.

At that point, valves were installed on top the casing, so that owner John Roberts and his neighbors to the south, the Lockie brothers, could use the sulfuric water, which was a toasty 170-190 degrees Fahrenheit and gushing out an amazing 2,142,000 gallons a day. The State believed this water to be of the same source as that at Thermopolis, Wyoming and Yellowstone Park and required the flow to be reduced before Old Faithful dried up.

In the late 1950s the enterprising Moore brothers bought the ranch, moved in an old building, poured a cement floor for it, installed bath tubs, and opened a frontier spa for their neighbors and friends.

Late one evening, some high school adventurers, tanked up on adult beverages, decided to pay an after-hours visit. Sad to say, the boys were ignorant about the necessity of cooling down the water, and their nocturnal frolic culminated in the Emergency Room of the local hospital with rumps and other private parts scalded.

Not uncommonly, the innocent paid the price. The owners feared a lawsuit from the guilty and destroyed the salon. When we visited the site, there were only scattered overturned and rusting bathtubs, with the one pictured, sitting in boiling mud in the middle of the vast plains. Try to sneak into that one, fellows!

Escaping steam could be seen for miles around, but that bit of Earth's great energy was largely wasted.

Jane's colorful remembrance was enhanced by red algae that throve in the hot water. Lacking only a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick-maker, this lone tub looks ready to set out across its miniature sea.

In 2014 Larry's poetic summary of the incidents appeared at http://www.cowboypoetrypress.com

It's miles to Miles City across this grassy flat

And cattle by the dozens can gorge themselves to fat

A drilling firm in fifty-six came here for a go

They struck no oil, just pressurized-but thermal-H2O

The flow was such 'twas feared, that if left to spout alone

The water well would soon enough drain old Yellowstone

They capped their geyser, and then astute new owners saw

A straight and forward way to build a basic spa

One night some high school students broke in and got a start

They landed in the hospital with burns on private parts

From real fear of lawsuit, then, dismantled was their dream

Excepting this one lonely tub, there's little left but steam.