42
By Steven Sampson
Rediscovered…reinvented…but not forgotten.
Castle Hot Springs returns from forty years as a ghost town. After the devastating
fire of December 1976, like the Phoenix, it arises from its ashes and resumes its place
among the celebrated resorts of the world.
Located 60 miles northwest of Phoenix, deep within the Bradshaw Mountains, Castle
Hot Springs is fed by an enormous cistern that is estimated to be 10,000 feet deep.
The hot springs produces over 200,000 gallons a day of pure, odorless, crystal clear
120-degree mineral water.
For millennia, the hot springs was a medicinal healing ground for Native American
tribes. In October 1867, a gang of robbers raided a mining camp in the Bradshaw
Mountains. Colonel Charles Craig, quartermaster for Fort Whipple, a U.S. Army post
that served as the territorial capital of Arizona, marshaled a troop of cavalry soldiers
and pursued the robbers on horseback south from Prescott.
After riding a day through the rugged terrain, shots were fired and arrows are
launched, and Colonel Craig captures the clan on the trail just west of Salvation Peak.
After securing the bandits, he had the men set up camp, survey the area, and they find
the fabled hot springs.