Hot Springs State Park is a public recreation area in

Thermopolis Thermopolis is the county seat and largest town in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town population was 2,725. Thermopolis is Greek for "hot city." It is home to numerous natural hot springs, in whi ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

, known for its

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

, which flow at a constant temperature of . The

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

offers free bathing at the State

Bath House Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

, where temperatures are moderated to a therapeutic . The

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

site at Legend Rock, some 25 miles away, is also part of the park. The park is managed by the

Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites The Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites is the Wyoming state agency that administers its state parks. Also known as Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails, the agency is headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming. See also *List of ...

History

The land on which the state park sits was a cession agreement, and the ceded portion was purchased from the

Eastern Shoshone Eastern Shoshone are Shoshone who primarily live in Wyoming and in the northeast corner of the Great Basin where Utah, Idaho and Wyoming meet and are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They lived in the Rocky Mountains du ...

by the federal government in 1896, when Indian Inspector James McLaughlin negotiated a purchase price of $60,000 for a 100-square-mile portion of the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...

reservation __NOTOC__ Reservation may refer to: Places Types of places: * Indian reservation, in the United States * Military base, often called reservations * Nature reserve Government and law * Reservation (law), a caveat to a treaty * Reservation in India, ...

. A square-mile section of that land was released to the state in 1897 which became Wyoming's first state park, known as Big Horn Hot Springs State Reserve.

Features

The park features a managed herd of

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North A ...

, a suspension foot bridge across the

Big Horn River The Bighorn River is a tributary of the Yellowstone, approximately long, in the states of Wyoming and Montana in the western United States. The river was named in 1805 by fur trader François Larocque for the bighorn sheep he saw along its ba ...

, picnic shelters, boat docks, flower gardens, and terraces made of naturally forming

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...

( calcium carbonate) caused by a flowing mineral hot spring. The park area encompasses commercial hotels and several state-run and privately operated entities including the Gottsche Rehabilitation Center, Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital, the historic Callaghan Apartments/Plaza Hotel, the Star Plunge waterpark, the Tepee Pools waterpark, and the Wyoming Pioneer Home, a state-run, assisted-living facility.

Gallery

File:WY 1914 Big Horn Hot Springs Thermopolis.jpg, Big Horn Hot Springs, c. 1914 File:2003-08-16 Hot Springs State Park across Big Horn River 2.jpg,

Travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a p ...

formation
at Hot Springs State Park File:Hot Springs State Park with suspension bridge in background.JPG, Winter view of the suspension footbridge over the Big Horn River File:Hot springs 3 (3819977178).jpg, Hot spring, Thermopolis, WY

References

External links

Hot Springs State Park
Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails
Hot Springs State Park Brochure and Map
Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites & Trails {{authority control State parks of Wyoming Hot springs of Wyoming Protected areas established in 1897 Protected areas of Hot Springs County, Wyoming Bodies of water Hot Springs County, Wyoming IUCN Category III 1897 establishments in Wyoming