Castle Hot Springs - Hieroglyphic Mountains & Bradshaw Mountains

Castle Hot Springs - Hieroglyphic Mountains & Bradshaw Mountains
Travel the winding dirt mountain roads leading up to one of the richest mined mountain ranges in world history. Dozens of mining towns filled these mountains, all long gone. Their wealth is said to have build the splendor of San Francisco. All that is left in the Bradshaws are mysterious roads leading you through beautiful hidden valleys and unique little oasis of green tucked into a desert.

Castle Hot Springs was a famous luxurious resort that saw the likes of John Kennedy, Clark Gable and Teddy Roosevelt.

You come out on Hwy 74 next to Lake Pleasant which is a beautiful desert lake with a marina and visitor center well worth the cost of admission.

Arizona SideCar Adventures will be your host to a customized trip to meet your time and travel requirements. Call us today to book your tour.

602-639-6303

HISTORY: In 1865 Yavapai County Arizona Territory, Col. Charles Craig, commander of troops at Prescott's Fort Whipple, pursued a group of Indians who had just raided nearby mining camps. This pursuit ended when the troops defeated the Indians and stopped to rest at what is now known as Salvation Peak. The surrounding peaks resembled castles and a creek at the bottom prompted the men to name the area Castle Creek. After finding the elusive "magic waters", or hot springs, of the Apaches, they named the area Castle Hot Springs. Apaches attributed healing powers to the hot, clear water that poured out from the canyon rock.
Frank Murphy obtained the land in the1880's with plans of building a secluded resort hotel. Frank Murphy's brother, Nathan Oakes Murphy, became the general manager of the development and hired other professionals to aid in the project. Civil Engineer, Andrew Barry, surveyed the roads and the site while a landscape gardener named Smith laid out the grounds. Toohey and Webster were also hired as contractors. In 1896 the first "hot springs resort" opened with additions between 1900 and 1905. In 1895, the construction of the north-south railroad, also commissioned by Murphy, allowed the Santa Fe Railway to take guests from all over the country to Morristown, formerly called Hot Springs Junction along what is now Hwy 60, near the junction with Hwy 74 . Guests would take a four-hour stagecoach ride almost 24 miles to the resort. The resort employing a full-time resident physician, masseur, and a masseuse.

Advertising pamphlets were sent eastward to potential clients boasting the “Oasis in the Mountains” as a beautiful and luxurious resort. The pamphlets also described the healing springs as a curative for rheumatism, blood disorders, insomnia, kidney disease, anemia, and other ills. Murphy believed the hot springs to have the perfect combination of healing water and hot dry air of the desert.

In its early years, Castle Hot Springs functioned as the first territorial winter capital of Arizona, as well as the local jail. Hangings were said to have been carried out on the administration building's balcony.

During this time the resort installed the first telephone in Arizona and its number was "1". In 1901, the resort became the first in Arizona to be electrified with the construction of an “electric light” plant and an ice plant.

On June 23, 1917, Frank Murphy died and left the Castle Hot Springs Hotel Company to his attorney, T. G. Norris. Norris maintained the resort and improved the integrity of the structures, replacing the wooden steps, platforms, and stone retaining walls with concrete. The property was sold on March 14, 1925 to Walter H. Rounsevel with the financial support of Thomas Fortune Ryan. The resort continued to blossom until the Great Depression following the market crash in 1929. On August 8, 1930, Natt Head Group bought the property but it was soon returned to the Castle Hot Springs Hotel Company due to a foreclosure agreement

In the 1920's and 30's the Wrigleys, Vanderbilts, Weinberg's, Rockefellers and even Zane Grey stayed in bungalows at the Castle Hot Springs resort.

Closed during World War II because of rationing and food shortages, the site was leased by the military for the recuperation of pilots. In 1945, a young naval officer named John F. Kennedy spent three months at the property recovering from combat injuries. This distinction earned Castle Hot Springs a special dispensation, allowing the American flag to be flown 24 hours a day on nearby Salvation Peak. Today the flag is maintained by the Boy Scouts of America.

The resort was then sold to Oasis Hotel Corporation.

Over the next 30 years the resort continued to operate until the famous "Palm House" burned down in a devastating fire in 1976. After the fire destroyed the main building, the property and its remaining cottages were donated to Arizona State University, by Mrs. Mae Talley, the owner of the resort, which used it as a conference center. ASU sold it in 1987 for $3 million to the Trainer brothers, who visited the property when they were children in the 1950s. Charles and Steve Trainer, two heirs to the Schlitz Brewing Co. fortune, and their partner, Scottsdale developer Fred Unger sold the property to Garrett Hotel Group of Burlington, Vt., whose owner David Garrett envisions a 50-room luxury hotel and spa . When Garrett bought the property, it had 167 acres. He later bought another 40 acres to the west.

The 207-acre property with year-round natural hot springs is about seven miles northwest of Lake Pleasant and 55 miles from downtown Phoenix. Due to the historical significance of the surrounding 405 acres, 16 buildings, and 8 structures, Castle Hot Springs was added to the National Historic Register in 1991.

Now only a caretaker remains and the resort has changed hands many times. Much remains including the main house, the employee house, the movie theatre, swimming pool (supposedly the largest free form pool in the world), golf course and more.

The hot springs are fed by an enormous cistern created by the displacement of tertiary volcanic rock, tens of thousands of years ago. Each day, this underground reservoir produces 400,000 gallons of water at 122 degrees Fahrenheit—the hottest temperature known for a spring which is not volcanically active. The waterfall emerges from a crack in the rock wall, supplying Castle Creek and its three deep pools with water that is quite pure, odorless, and crystal clear. Its superb quality indicates a source depth of 7,000 to 10,000 feet.
Notes on Castle Hot Springs: Castle Hot Springs Road off Hwy 60 on to Hwy 74 east near Wickenburg will take you through the Bradshaw Mountains to Lake Pleasant Road off of Hwy 74

The first two miles off Hwy 60 is asphalt through a neighborhood of luxury homes. As the neighborhood ends, the blacktop becomes a graded, red dirt road in various states depending on recent weather conditions. Some areas are barely wide enough to handle a hummer. Often the road and river bed are one in the same with a small stream at road edge for miles.

The road goes through the White Picacho mining district overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the valley of the Buckhorn and Hieroglyphic Mountain foothills (which actually have no hieroglyphics but do abound with Indian petroglyphs) with the Bradshaw Mountains ahead.

The road goes just north of the rugged Hells Canyon Wilderness. California fan palm trees 45- to 60-foot-tall trees line the property of JL Bar, a retired cattle ranch built in the late 1800s.

Flanked by bougainvillea and emerald lawns, Castle Hot Springs Resort is now closed, a “private” sign and caretaker protecting it's secrets. Perhaps one day the sprawling estate will be reopened to societies elite once again.

Take an Arizona SideCar Adventure trip to many areas of Arizona viewed a a slower pace and up close. It's an "E" ticket ride! Call 602-565-5785 for more information.