Radium Hot Springs

Radium Hot Springs is a sulfurous geothermal spring in the United States named for the historical detection of natural radioactivity in its mineral waters — a geological characteristic shared by several American hot springs in uranium-bearing rock formations where trace amounts of dissolved radon acquire a mild background radioactivity that was enthusiastically promoted during the early twentieth-century 'radium craze,' when the newly discovered element captured the public imagination. The sulfurous mineral content of the waters is associated with sulfur springs in the long American tradition of hot spring bathing, while the spring's striking name carries the historical fascination of the radioactivity era when natural mineral waters were subjected to the most advanced analytical science of the day. The spring offers an authentic natural thermal bathing experience in the American backcountry tradition — outdoor, unmediated, and directly connected to the geological forces that heat and mineralize these waters beneath the ancient rock formations of the surrounding landscape.