A Campground With A Hundred Sites Along The Wooded Shores Of The French Broad Built In 1994 By Eugene Hicks
For a quiet mountain valley, Hot Springs, North Carolina has seen more than its fair share of boom and bust. “It’s quite a tumultuous past,” Heather Hicks, current manager of the Hot Springs Resort and Spa, tells The Buzz. “The Native Americans knew about the springs and used them for a long time, but by 1778, we have written records of people coming to soak in the springs.”
A town, originally called Warm Springs, grew up along the French Broad River and Wade Hampton, a Revolutionary War hero and governor of South Carolina, built a cottage-style hostelry by 1830. The Patton Brothers expanded it into a resort with over 100 rooms and 13 columns across the front representing the 13 original states.
“The Patton Hotel burned in 1884, and work started on the Mountain Park Hotel,” Heather says. “It was the grandest ever built here, with over 200 rooms and the first golf course in North Carolina. The bathhouse had pools lined with marble and people would come to take the resort’s famous 21-day cure of baths, massage and other treatments. The Mountain Park burned in 1920.”
In between, the resort was leased out as a German internment camp during World War I, when some 2500 people stranded on luxury liners in New York harbor at the outbreak of the war were brought to Hot Springs. The Germans built a makeshift village on the hotel lawn, including a chapel constructed of flattened Prince Albert Tobacco tins. The German village and much of the town of Hot Springs was swept away in the Flood of 1916.
Heather continues the list of disasters: “In 1924, the last hotel on the property was built, the Hot Springs Inn. It burnt down in 1977.”
The modern history of the springs began in 1994, when Eugene Hicks bought the property. “He grew up close by and tried to visit the Hot Springs Inn during the 1950s, but was turned away,” Heather says. “At that point, he vowed, prophetically, that one day he would make the springs into a place for every person.”
Instead of building another grand hotel, Hicks built a campground and cabins along the river and put in tubs where day visitors could enjoy the famous mineral waters. By then, just ruins remained of the previous resorts. “It took him four years just to find the springs,” Heather says.
“The mineral water is really the heart and soul of Hot Springs,” she explains. “Our water isn’t sulfuric like so many springs, but is rich in magnesium, so it’s great for any kind of muscle soreness, fibromyalgia, arthritis and many skin ailments. And it’s naturally carbonated, which is so nice. We have naturally what other people try to achieve artificially.”
The Hot Springs water comes out of the ground at 110 degrees and averages 102 to 103 by the time it’s piped into the tubs. “It’s always within a couple of degrees,” Heather says. “The one time we noticed it rise a couple of degrees, we had an 3.4 earthquake centered about six miles up river. Then the temperature went right back down.”
Today, the Hot Springs Resort and Spa operates a campground with over a hundred sites ranging from tent pads to full hookups for RVs, plus a scattering of camping cabins, along the wooded shores of the French Broad. Across the street, more than a dozen, modern jacuzzi style tubs are situated along the river and Spring Creek. Each tub enjoys a private setting and continuously flowing natural mineral water from the bountiful springs. Nearby, a spa provides a full complement of treatments, including massage, wraps, facials and more.
The Hot Springs Resort is a great favorite with hikers and whitewater rafters thanks to its location at the junction of the French Broad River and the Appalachian Trail. Numerous outfitters, including a branch of the famous Nantahala Outdoor Center, offer rafting trips on the river. The Appalachian Trail runs right down the main street of the town of Hot Springs, and as the only town in North Carolina directly on the trail, is a popular stop for rest and restocking among through hikers. All meet and mingle with RVers visiting the springs in the resort’s campground, making for interesting conversations around campfires and hot tubs.
Although sandwiched between I-40 and I-26, just a half hour from Asheville, the town of Hot Springs in its deep valley retains the atmosphere of an earlier day. Many current residents of the small town, population just 600, came originally to visit, but found themselves staying, enchanted by the area’s charm and friendliness. This is what happened to Pete and Karen Nagle, Charlotte residents who came for a vacation 24 years ago. Today, they operate two historic properties they rescued and renovated, the Mountain Magnolia Inn, a 1868 Italianate Victorian built by the owner of the resort as his personal residence, and the Laughing Heart Lodge, built in 1892 and used as a Jesuit retreat.
“Hot Springs has a real charm,” Pete Nagle says. “The town is so walkable, the people are friendly, the scenery is beautiful and the outdoor activities can’t be beat. People have been coming through here even before the old Buncombe Turnpike was finished back in 1824 along the French Broad. The river is a natural passage through the mountains.”
Right now, Nagle says, the town is experiencing one of its boom times. “We’re seeing a lot of renovation of old buildings,” he says. “Growth is stronger than it was 10 or 15 years ago, but it still feels the same.”
Heather Hicks attributes this timeless quality to the French Broad River itself. “It’s one of the oldest rivers in the world,” she says. “It was here before the mountains. There’s something very mystical here, very centering. You can take a black and white picture downtown and not know where you are in time. I’ve seen hikers stop for the night and ten years later they are still here.”
Renee Wright
A graduate of Franconia College in Social Psychology, Renee has worked as Travel Editor for Charlotte Magazine and has written three travel guidebooks for Countryman Press among other writing assignments. She enjoys food and camping.
Make Sure To Stay At:
Hot Springs Resort & Spa, where Mother Nature waved her magical wand and created one of the most natural of all wonders, Natural Hot Mineral Waters. Heated deep within the earth, these crystal clear carbonated waters are world famous for their mineral content and legendary healing powers.