Murphy Hot Springs, Idaho | |
|---|---|
 Murphy Hot Springs, June 2013 | |
  Murphy Hot Springs Location within Idaho  Murphy Hot Springs Location within the United States | |
| Coordinates: 42°01′26.8602″N115°21′36.6588″W / 42.024127833°N 115.360183000°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Idaho |
| County | Owyhee |
| Establishment | 1885 |
| Population (1995) | |
• Total | 8−14 |
| Time zone | UTC-7 (Mountain (MST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
Murphy Hot Springs is an unincorporated community in Owyhee County, Idaho, United States. [1]
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(May 2025) |
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2025) |
The area where the springs, and thus the community, is located was firstly discovered by the local native population. [2]
John R. Wilkins heavily invested in the herding of horses back in Tuscarora, Nevada; however, in 1879, on New Year's Eve, the Wilkins house hotel got incinerated by a fire, leading the family to find a new place to stay. [3]
The Wilkins back in Tuscorora had heard numerous rumors from the Bruneau Valley settlers refugees (Which were forced to leave in order to escape from Chief Buffalo Horn, during the Bannock War of 1878) about a territory in Idaho whom they called the "Valley of Tall Grass". [3]
Kittie Wilkins (the daughter of John), and her brother, discovered the hot spring whilst searching for stray horses in the area, in a summer of an unspecified year in the early 1880s. [3]
They connected the Spring to various trails that led to neighbouring communities, and created a wall made out of stone to keep their livestock within the area from fleeing. Both are still peculiar landmarks of the small communities today. [3]
John R. Wilkins had already built a house in the area in 1885 and declared the birth of the small community. [3]
As early as in the 1880s, gold was found in the area around the East fork; and in the 1890s, Kittie and her buckaroos found a golden piece the size of a walnut, which led them to discover a local abandoned mine. [3]
This led to a big gold rush, and many camps to be set in the area in order to find and mine gold at the start of the 1900s. [3]
In 1911, on a publication of the "Saturday Evening Post", Novelist Maude Radford Warren described the community at the time like this: [3]
Men camped everywhere - on the clearing, across the stream, and by the side of the road. Some had wagons and tents the horses were picketed. Everywhere men walked and sat, smoked and talked, and looked up towards a trail along which the pack mules were slowly moving to Jarbridge.
— Maude Radford Warren
Around this time, the "Wilkins Horse Company at Bruneau’s Diamond Ranch", led by Kittie, flourished. [4]
Meanwhile, the springs fell into the hands of a Patrick Murphy, a new settler not affiliated with the Wilkins, who developed a small resort on the property and renamed it "Murphy Hot Springs". [2]
An airport nearby was soon built, known as the "Murphy Hot Springs airport", which in the first half of the 20th century served the spring and Murphy, who'd at the time would pick you up at the airstrip. [5]
Back in 1995, when correspondents of Deseret News visited the area, the community had 8 to 14 residents. [6]
The community is located along Three Creek Road between Rogerson, Idaho and Jarbidge, Nevada at the bottom of the East Fork Jarbidge River's canyon. [7] As of 2007, the community contains approximately 50 homes. [8]
The hottest temperature recorded in Murphy Hot Springs was 102 °F (38.9 °C) on July 15, 2014, while the coldest temperature recorded was −27 °F (−32.8 °C) on February 2, 1996. [9]
| Climate data for Murphy Hot Springs, Idaho, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1987–present | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 65 (18) | 65 (18) | 75 (24) | 86 (30) | 91 (33) | 99 (37) | 102 (39) | 99 (37) | 98 (37) | 91 (33) | 77 (25) | 70 (21) | 102 (39) |
| Mean maximum °F (°C) | 56.7 (13.7) | 59.4 (15.2) | 66.1 (18.9) | 76.2 (24.6) | 82.9 (28.3) | 91.6 (33.1) | 96.7 (35.9) | 95.4 (35.2) | 91.0 (32.8) | 81.0 (27.2) | 68.3 (20.2) | 58.5 (14.7) | 97.4 (36.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 40.7 (4.8) | 42.7 (5.9) | 49.6 (9.8) | 55.3 (12.9) | 65.4 (18.6) | 75.2 (24.0) | 86.3 (30.2) | 85.0 (29.4) | 76.5 (24.7) | 62.3 (16.8) | 48.5 (9.2) | 39.9 (4.4) | 60.6 (15.9) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 29.1 (−1.6) | 30.7 (−0.7) | 36.8 (2.7) | 41.5 (5.3) | 49.9 (9.9) | 57.4 (14.1) | 66.2 (19.0) | 65.1 (18.4) | 56.9 (13.8) | 45.6 (7.6) | 35.2 (1.8) | 27.8 (−2.3) | 45.2 (7.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 17.5 (−8.1) | 18.8 (−7.3) | 24.1 (−4.4) | 27.6 (−2.4) | 34.5 (1.4) | 39.6 (4.2) | 46.2 (7.9) | 45.1 (7.3) | 37.4 (3.0) | 28.9 (−1.7) | 21.9 (−5.6) | 15.7 (−9.1) | 29.8 (−1.2) |
| Mean minimum °F (°C) | −0.4 (−18.0) | 2.7 (−16.3) | 12.2 (−11.0) | 17.2 (−8.2) | 23.7 (−4.6) | 30.9 (−0.6) | 37.9 (3.3) | 35.4 (1.9) | 28.0 (−2.2) | 17.1 (−8.3) | 5.6 (−14.7) | −0.3 (−17.9) | −6.3 (−21.3) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −17 (−27) | −27 (−33) | 2 (−17) | 11 (−12) | 18 (−8) | 18 (−8) | 21 (−6) | 23 (−5) | 24 (−4) | −2 (−19) | −6 (−21) | −23 (−31) | −27 (−33) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 1.12 (28) | 0.95 (24) | 1.16 (29) | 2.24 (57) | 2.29 (58) | 1.21 (31) | 0.72 (18) | 0.54 (14) | 0.88 (22) | 1.00 (25) | 1.31 (33) | 1.29 (33) | 14.71 (372) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 6.5 (17) | 10.2 (26) | 8.3 (21) | 4.1 (10) | 0.6 (1.5) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.5 (1.3) | 7.2 (18) | 9.9 (25) | 47.3 (119.8) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 7.7 | 7.8 | 9.8 | 11.3 | 11.0 | 6.2 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 6.6 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 91.8 |
| Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) | 4.1 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 3.5 | 5.5 | 25.2 |
| Source 1: NOAA [10] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: National Weather Service [9] | |||||||||||||
Media related to Murphy Hot Springs, Idaho at Wikimedia Commons
Municipalities and communities of Owyhee County, Idaho, United States | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| CDPs | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Indian reservation | ||
| Ghost towns | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
| International | |
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| National | |
