Chico Hot Springs Resort - Montana's Unique, Historical, Vacation Spot

Blending the Past with the Present

Nestled at the foot of the Absaroka Range of the Rocky Mountains, not far from the North entrance to Yellowstone National Park, there's a great place to get away from it all. Chico Hot Springs Resort offers their guests a bridge linking the past to the present in a setting that can only be described as majestically pristine.

Chico Hot Springs is officially located in Pray, Montana, a place that can barely be classified a town, with a population of 85 people. Chico is about halfway between Livingston and Gardiner, Montana, which is home of the original entrance to the World's first National Park.

The natural hot water mineral springs that Chico Hot Springs was built around were first discovered toward the final days of the Civil War. In the 1870's miners and trappers would stop at the springs to launder their clothes and bathe in the healing waters. The fact that a hotel and swimming facilities were built around those hot springs in 1900 is in itself quite impressive, considering the out of the way location. In the early 1900's, Chico Warm Springs Hotel was not only a place for resting and recreating, but also developed a reputation as a health spa, widely reputed for the therapeutic properties of the mineral rich warm water that originated miles beneath the Earth's surface. Chico even had a resident Physician between the years of 1912 and 1925.

News of everything Chico offered spread throughout the nation and before long uniformed stage drivers were transporting guests from the train depot in Emigrant, just three miles away. A couple of those noted guests were President Theodore Roosevelt and artist Charles M. Russell. Today, celebrities such as Dennis Quaid, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Peter Fonda might be seen kicking back at Chico.