| Beverly Hot Springs | |
|---|---|
| Oxford Hot Springs Beverly Hills Hot Springs | |
 | |
| Location | Koreatown, Los Angeles |
| Coordinates | 34°04′35.8″N118°18′27.5″W / 34.076611°N 118.307639°W |
| Elevation | 300 feet |
| Type | geothermal |
| Discharge | 250,000 gallons per day |
| Temperature | 105 °F (41 °C) |
Beverly Hot Springs is the only remaining natural geothermal hot spring within the center of the city of Los Angeles. It is located between Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles on what is now Oxford Avenue. [1]
The spring was used by the local Indigenous people prior to settlement of the area. [2] In 1769 the Portolá expedition passed through this geographic area and noted the quantity of water sources, from springs to streams and marshes. [3]
The hot spring was discovered by oil drillers in 1910, [4] when a well was drilled in the area. [2] [5] This occurred prior to 1915, when the first water mains were developed in Los Angeles. [6]
At the beginning of the 1920s, the Los Angeles leadership began the process of filling-in wetlands and burying natural sources of water – including hot springs – as an effort to promote real estate sales. [3]
After re-discovery in 1931, the mineral water was bottled and sold for drinking under the name "Wonder Water" and was claimed to be "Natures own formula," until just after World War II. [7] It was sold for ten cents per gallon, and was claimed to have healing properties that could resolve "acidity and kindred troubles." [6]
In 1984, a thermal spa was established at the site [7] by Yang Cha Kim, a Korean doctor of Oriental medicine and her husband. Later the property turned over to another owner. [2]
In 2023, KCRW radio reported that plans are in the works cap the artesian thermal spring source and to demolish the spa facility to build a housing development. [2] An organization was formed, the Save Beverly Hot Springs Alliance, to designate the springs as a protected historical site. [8]
The natural artesian hot spring water emerges from the aquifer located at 2,200 feet below ground. [1] It is cooled to a range of 96 °F (36 °C) to 105 °F (41 °C) into several tile-lined soaking pools. [5] The hot spring water temperature is 105 °F (41 °C). [1] The water discharges at a flow rate of 250,000 gallons per day. [4] [9] The alkaline water [6] has a mineral content of aluminum oxide, iron, magnesium carbonate, silica, sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. [10]
Beverly Hot Springs is located in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. At one time, this area contained numerous hot springs. [3]
A spring is a natural exit point at which groundwater emerges out of the aquifer and flows onto the top of the Earth's crust (pedosphere) to become surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere, as well as a part of the water cycle. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh water, especially in arid regions which have relatively little annual rainfall.
The Széchenyi Medicinal Bath in Budapest is the largest medicinal bath in Europe. Its water is supplied by two thermal springs, their temperature is 74 °C (165 °F) and 77 °C (171 °F).
Los Encinos State Historic Park is a state park unit of California, preserving buildings of Rancho Los Encinos. The park is located near the corner of Balboa and Ventura Boulevards in Encino, California, in the San Fernando Valley. The rancho includes the original nine-room de la Ossa Adobe, the two-story limestone Garnier building, a blacksmith shop, a natural spring, and a pond. The 4.7-acre (1.9 ha) site was established as a California state park in 1949.
Waiwera Hot Pools is a hot springs system located in the small coastal village of Waiwera, just north of Auckland, New Zealand. They were known to the Māori people for centuries before being developed. In the 1960s and 70s overproduction and overpumping of the geothermal aquifer led to significant loss of pressure and desiccation of the springs in the late 1970. A decade later the thermal springs began to recover, although the system has not returned to the former artesian conditions.
Bimini Baths was a geothermal mineral water public bathhouse and plunge in what is now Koreatown, Los Angeles, California, US. It was situated just west of downtown, near Third Street and Vermont Avenue. Bimini Baths contained a natatorium, swimming pools, swimming plunge, Turkish baths, a medical treatment department, and bottling works.
Ojo Caliente Hot Springs is a group of thermal springs located in Taos County, New Mexico, United States. They are also known as the Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs. These hot springs were used by native New Mexicans for many years. In the late 19th century the springs began to be developed for therapeutic use for several ailments, including tuberculosis.
Desert Hot Springs is a geothermal geographic area in Riverside County, California with several hot springs. Since 1941, the California Department of Conservation has recorded approximately 200 geothermal wells that have been drilled in this geographic area; approximately 50 of which are used for commercial spas and pools.
Big Caliente Hot Springs are a grouping of thermal mineral springs located in the Los Padres National Forest of California.
Truth or Consequences Hot Springs is a thermal spring system located in the Hot Springs Artesian Basin area of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico in Sierra County.
Buckhorn Hot Mineral Wells also known as Buckhorn Baths, and Buckhorn Mineral Wells is a hot spring located seven miles East of Mesa, Arizona.
Hot Well Dunes is a hot spring in the San Simeon Valley of Arizona, located on BLM land southeast of the town of Safford.
Wiesbaden Hot Springs is a group of three thermal springs and a vapor cave in Ouray, Colorado. The spring water flows from the source at 118 °F (48 °C) and is cooled to between 99 and 108 °F in the soaking pools.
White Sulphur Springs was considered the oldest warm mineral springs resort facility in Northern California. It was founded in 1852 in the town of St. Helena in the Napa Valley. Most of the structures at the site were destroyed in 2020 in the Glass Fire.
Radium Sulphur Springs, located on the north side of Melrose Avenue between Larchmont and Gower Street in Los Angeles, California, U.S., was an early-20th-century hot spring that resulted from an unsuccessful attempt to drill 1,500 feet (460 m) for oil. "Discovered" in 1905 and opened as a spa by G. P. Gehring in 1908, the owners claimed that the water was radioactive, germicidal, and blood purifying. The supposed radioactivity of water was advertised as "liquid sunshine" and was part of the larger radium fad of the early 20th century. The spa was located in Colegrove, an electric-railway stop and associated community just south of Hollywood.
Encino Hot Springs are historic thermal springs located at the site of Siutcanga village, a settlement of the Tongva-Kizh people of the area now known as Southern California. It was used by several tribes of Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Later, after settlement, the artesian springs were used as a water source for Rancho Los Encinos in what is now the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California. In the 1880s it was a rest stop on the Butterfield Stagecoach route. The springs are located in the modern-day Los Encinos State Historic Park.
Soboba Hot Springs are a historic hot springs and resort in Riverside County, California, United States. Located along the San Jacinto Fault a little more than a mile from the city of San Jacinto and about five miles southeast of the Gilman Hot Springs, a resort based around the springs was first attempted in 1885. The resort closed in 1969, and the remaining buildings burned in a 1979 arson-ignited wildfire. Soboba Resort Casino, a Native American gaming hotel opened in 2019, is located close to where the springs resort once stood.
Montecito Hot Springs is a thermal spring system and former resort locatedwithin the Los Padres National Forest approximately 5 miles northeast of Santa Barbara, California.
Gaviota Hot Springs is a geothermal feature in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. The two pools are accessible from the Gaviota Peak trail in Gaviota State Park. Gaviota Hot Springs is sometimes called Las Cruces Hot Springs or Sulphur Springs.