Larned’s Health Resort

2022

By Carol Jenkner

Education Director

 

            What did you do over the Labor Day weekend? Did you take a family trip to one of the area lakes? Go boating or fishing? Or did you take a picnic and go for a swim at the local pool? At the end of the nineteenth century, Larned had a recreational salt lake, touted as the “Carlsbad of America”, a place where healing mineral waters could fix almost anything that ailed you. Billed as a health resort, the area offered almost anything a person wanting some fresh air and a dip in the healing waters could want. Don’t scoff! This place offered amusements on par with today’s water parks, not a new invention.

            The idea took root when workmen, digging for coal deposits, hit a vein of salt water that shot into the air at a height of several feet like a geyser. Senator J.W. Rush, president of Larned’s First National Bank, saw the potential of a mineral water spring, referring to it as the Kansas version of “Carlsbad of America”, an opulent hotel and spa located in Indiana. Gaining support for the project, a small lake was dug, about a city block square, and to a depth of about four feet. It quickly filled with salt water from the flowing well.

            Bath houses were built that offered a salt water plunge, and hot and cold showers and tubs. A photo in the Panorama of Progress: A Century of Living, published by the Tiller and Toiler covering the years 1872-1972 gave an idea of the extent of the construction that went on to create Larned’s own Carlsbad of America spa.

            There were giant slides, diving platforms, boat rentals and stadium seating for viewing the goings-on out in the water. There was even a bandstand erected in the middle of the lake where Thompson’s Military Band held nightly concerts. Imagine being rowed out in a band uniform with your instrument and stepping from a rocking row boat onto a platform in the middle of a small lake!

            The spa had a few good years before it was abandoned because seeping salt water began to kill vegetation in the surrounding area. Angry landowners complained, threatening legal action. The resort was closed and the lake allowed to dry up. Thus ended Senator Rush’s Kansas version of Carlsbad of America.