Miette Hot Springs History

 

• 1800s: Canada’s Indigenous people used these springs

  for achieving physical and spiritual well-being.

   

  Hot springs are of longstanding importance to Indigenous people.  

 

• 1910: A crude pack trail, accessible on foot or by horseback, attracted only the most determined bathers.

 

• 1913: Construction of a makeshift log bathhouse and sleeping shelter.

 

• 1919: Striking coal miners, from the nearby community of Pocahontas, built a temporary bathhouse and two sweat houses.

 

• 1934: The increasing popularity of the hot springs, in Jasper National Park, prompted the construction of a proper road and a permanent aquacourt, with facilities similar to those found at the Banff Upper Hot Springs. Built as a depression unemployment relief project, several hundred men worked on the construction, which was completed in 1938.

 

• 1986: Construction of a new facility about a kilometer from the original building. The historic ruins of the original bathhouse still stand for those who wish to walk up the valley to see the source of the hot springs