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Cinnabar MT
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LaDuke Hot Springs
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Livingston MT - Original Gateway to YNP
LaDuke Hot Springs

LaDuke Hot Springs

Park County, Montana - Gateway to Yellowstone Park

 

 

Copyright 2009 Robert V. Goss 
All rights reserved.  No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by an information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author














Warrington Sulfur Hot Springs, near Wasington DC, ca1860s

The Hot Spring Phenomena           

LaDuke Hot Spring resort was pioneered by Julius LaDuke toward the end of the 1890s when the popularity of hot spring resorts was at its zenith. Hot spring spas were immensely popular throughout the United States and Europe. Claims were made about the “curative” waters whose medicinal values would benefit a wide variety of ailments, including those involving the kidneys, bladder, liver, stomach, skin, and nervous diseases. The underlying scientific phenomena that created Yellowstone, also produced a number of hot springs in Montana and the Park County region that were exploited in the late1800s and early 1900s with varying degrees of success. Chico Hot Springs, about midway between Gardiner and Livingston has remained one of the most successful since its official establishment in 1900. Other developments that enjoyed popularity for a time, but have passed into the pages of time include Corwin Springs, Montanapolis (Mill Creek), and Hunter Hot Springs near Springdale.

 

Background        

     LaDuke Hot Springs is located about 6-7 miles north of Gardiner, Montana along the Yellowstone River and Hwy 89. The springs bubble forth just east of the highway and the 145 degree waters flow under the road prior to entering the Yellowstone River. Today's casual traveler may drive by and notice some concrete boxes alongside the road covered with boards that emanate wafting plumes of steam, and perhaps wonder about the origins of this phenomena.


LaDuke Hot Springs hotel
Courtesy Yellowstone Gateway Museum
Just over a hundred years ago a much different scene presented itself. There was no highway or road on the east side of the Yellowstone River and LaDuke Hot Springs was a popular, albeit short-lived resort community. A two-story board hotel with perhaps a dozen rooms graced the location along with a plunge, soaking tubs, a house and assorted outbuildings.  The concrete boxes collected the hot spring water and diverted it to holding tanks that stored and cooled the water. The road from Livingston to Gardiner was across the river on the west side and guests accessed the facilities via a swinging bridge.

 

Family History

     According to family research, Julius J. LaDuke, also known as Jules, is believed to have been born in Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada in 1842, although US Census data puts his birthplace as Michigan. Born as LeDuc, the name has also been spelled as LaDuc and La Duke. LaDuke immigrated to the US in the 1870s and traveled around the west. At some point in time he married Elizabeth Kappes, who died around 1879. After her death, Julius, his two small children, and brother Onesime moved to Colorado where they operated a lumber mill. Julius later married Celina “Lena” Bougie, also a French Canadian. After the tragic murder of Onesime in 1889, Julius and his family moved to southwest Montana where they filed mining claims and purchased properties that included what became the LaDuke Hot Springs.

 

Creating the Resort

Julius LaDuke began developing the hot springs in the 1890s and catered to the local populace, including the hard-working miners across the river at the coal towns of Aldridge and Electric. He also hoped to lure Yellowstone tourists to his resort. The Northern Pacific railroad traveled from Livingston to Cinnabar (Gardiner in 1903) and stopped at Electric along the route. Ads began appearing in the local newspaper around 1900 extolling the curative benefits of visiting the springs. In 1902 LaDuke built a two-story board hotel so that guests could spend the night.  An early ad in the Gardiner Wonderland newspaper touted “LaDuke’s Mineral Hot Spring” and “New Large Public Plunge Bath. Private Baths for Both Ladies and Gentlemen.”

Ad from Gardiner Wonderland, July 17, 1902

 


Hotel & swinging bridge over Yellowstone River. Courtesy Yellowstone Gateway Museum

A formal bridge never crossed the river at LaDuke, and until the Corwin Springs bridge was built in1908, the only Yellowstone River bridges were at Emigrant (Fridley) and Gardiner. Guests to the spa were originally transported across the river in barges and later on a cable ferry, which was sometimes susceptible to the vagaries of surging river levels during spring runoff.  A Wonderland ad from early 1900s advertised, “First-class boat for ferrying across the river at all times.” A swinging bridge was later added that avoided those potential water crossing problems.

 

 An Unsolved Mystery

Livingston, June 28, 1903. - Word was received from Gardiner to-night of the mysterious disappearance of a woman at Laduke Hot Springs near Horr. The woman, who gave the name of Mrs. Kinsley, was driven from Gardiner to the hot springs last night and was assigned one of the smaller tents, which are run in connection with the hotel.

The Woman Is Missed.
About two o'clock this morning storm came up and the proprietor of the place decided to have the guests occupying the tents come Into the hotel, where they could he more comfortable. On calling at the tent occupied by Mrs. Kingsley It was found empty. Her clothes were hanging on a chair aa she had left them on retiring. Everything was in its place except her shoes, which were missing. Search was immediately begun, and although parties have been out ever since she was discovered absent from the tent, no trace of the missing woman can be found.

Quarrels With a Man.
The woman stopped at the Park hotel at Gardiner when she returned from Jardine, where she went several days ago. It was noticed that she was in an excited condition and several times asked for a drink, and when she left Gardiner for the springs she is said to have been under the influence of liquor. It is believed that she left Jardine yesterday after a violent quarrel with a man who she went to visit and whom she claimed was her husband.

May Have Killed Herself.
It is the general opinion that she has committed suicide by jumping into the Yellowstone River, which runs adjacent to the Laduke warm springs. It is thought that she went down to the river in her night clothes and put her shoes on to save her feet while passing over the rocky path.

Leaves a Boy at Gardiner.
She left a boy five or six years of age at the Park hotel at Gardiner and her trunk was left by her direction on the depot platform. She made every arrangement to go to Livingston to-day. She claimed to have formerly lived in Bozeman.

[Helena Indpendent, Jun. 29, 1903]

 

Miscellany

Bottom: Gardiner Wonderland, Sep. 25, 1902

Right: Butte Miner, Jul. 25, 1905
 

 

The Final Days

     Julius’ operation was relatively short-lived and business dwindled due to labor and financial problems at the nearby coal mines, and the propensity for Yellowstone tourists to travel straight through on the railroad from Livingston to Gardiner.  Competition from the new Corwin Springs Resort with an impressive hotel and deluxe bathing facilities spelled the end of the LaDuke operation. Apparently unable to see a successful future, Jules LaDuke sold the operation and it ended up in the hands of the company that owned the new Corwin Springs Hot Springs resort. It seems their primary motive for acquisition of LaDuke's property was for the hot water itself; the hot water was channeled a few miles away to Corwin Springs to service the hotel and plunge where an impressive new hotel was built and a bridge constructed across the river that would directly access the railroad.

CLICK HERE to see my web page on the Corwin Springs Hotel

Corwin Springs Hotel with autos crossing the bridge.
Postcard, Author Collection

 

Julius and his family moved to Livingston where he had purchased several downtown and residential properties that included the infamous Bucket of Blood Saloon and the LaDuke Pool Hall. Relations deteriorated between Julius and Lena and by 1914 ugly divorce proceedings were in progress. A news article from an Anaconda newspaper in April claimed that “she (Lena) has treated the defendant with contempt, sworn at and abused the defendant, and called him a ‘fool’ and a ‘d____d fool’.” Julius alleged “that she has threatened to ‘bust’ him and ‘break’ him by securing all his property through a divorce.”

            Apparently she followed through on the allegations and it is claimed that he lost all his residential properties in the divorce. A seemingly broken man, he eventually became poverty-stricken and was forced to move to the county Poor House where he died December 8, 1927.







Copyright 2019 Robert V. Goss 
All rights reserved.  No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by an information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author





























 



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