Longmire Springs Hotel, Rainier National Park, ca 1910
This photo postcard dates from about 1910 when the Longmire Springs Hotel opened as a health resort. There are no identifying marks to indicate the photographer or the publisher of the card. It is unused. The dating is based on the length of the skirts the women in the picture are wearing and the new appearing condition of the hotel.
As early as 1889 James Longmire built guest cabins and later the rustic two-story hotel shown on the card. His son, Eclaine, added on to the hotel and also built bathhouses and barns. The family had a mining claim before the park was established so the park management had little control over how the hotel looked or how it was run. Arguments about the appearance and operations developed and the park offered to buy the land and buildings in 1902 but the Longmires refused to sell. It wasn’t until after the death of Eclaine in 1915 and the Longmire Springs Hotel Company Hotel Company took over operations in 1916 that any changes were made. That same year the park started building the Paradise Inn and also was able to begin buying the Longmire buildings.
Before the era of park lodges like Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park, many of the hotels or lodges were wood frame structures like this one that were cheaply built on blocks instead of true foundations. The result was after a few seasons the roofs would sag, the floors would no longer be level and no amount of new exterior paint could fix the increasing disrepair. At some point Longmire Springs was called the “ultimate decrepit mountain resort hotel.” A second, larger hotel was added in 1906 but it burned down in 1926. The Annex was added to the property in 1916. The 1916 structure was much better built and survives today as The National Park Inn.
The nearby mineral hot springs were thought to be beneficial and a curative for a variety of ailments. Approximately 500 people visited the springs a year. Water temperatures reached 85 F or 29 C. Ironically the mineral springs had no proven health benefits and some time later notices warned that the water might cause sickness.
Today, except for the 1916 National Park Inn building and Eclaine Longmire’s reconstructed cabin, little remains of the once popular resort. The meadow is returning to its natural pre-resort condition, there are wild flowers, and there are places where the hot spring water still comes out of the ground and runs down the hillside.
We have hiked in this area a couple of times and found signs posted providing some local history and also warnings about the water.
The soggy meadow with ill smelling mineral spring water
For additional information, see:
http://www.arroyorain.com/2011/05/14/mt-rainiers-longmire
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-national-park-inn.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmire,_Washington
http://www.nplas.org/longmiresprings.html
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