Indian Hot Springs (Holladay Hot Springs)

Current status: private, no public soaking

Indian Hot Springs is one of the oldest hot spring resorts in Arizona, and you will still find it on maps and hot spring lists. You cannot soak there. The springs sit on private land a few miles north of the farming community of Eden in Graham County, and the BLM’s land-status service shows the spring itself as private property. We found no official website, no booking system and no public day-use program in October 2026. Some listings describe the property as a private retreat that takes guests by arrangement, but we could not confirm that with the owner or any official source.

The centerpiece of the old resort, a three-story hotel, burned on February 28, 2008. Only some masonry walls survived. If you see the place advertised as a working resort with a hotel and a big pool, the listing is out of date.

This page also covers Holladay Hot Springs, the name the springs carried from 1888 to 1899. It is the same place.

What the site is

The springs rise on the north side of the Gila Valley at about 2,792 feet, near the Gila River and about 2.7 miles from Eden. A 1980 NOAA list of thermal springs records the water at about 118°F48°C as it leaves the ground. A 1916 measurement put the flow at 1.5 million gallons a day, which is a lot of hot water for southeastern Arizona and explains why the site drew a resort.

OpenStreetMap marks the main spring just off Hot Springs Road and Coontown Road, with a cold spring and a smaller “Mud Springs” mapped nearby. The surrounding land is farms, mesquite and the floodplain of the Gila.

History

Local Indigenous people used the springs long before settlers arrived. In the late 1870s Ben Gardner developed the site commercially, with soaking pools and a tent camp that served soldiers from nearby Fort Thomas. Business picked up after 1885, when the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway reached nearby Pima.

In 1888 John Holladay and his son bought the 200-acre property and renamed it Holladay Hot Springs. Besides the baths, they sold lime. In May 1899 the brothers John and Andrew Alexander bought it and gave it the name it still carries, Indian Hot Springs. They added about 60 cottage tents, a kitchen and a dining hall, and advertised the water for rheumatism, as most spa owners of the era did. A local newspaper in 1901 described the springs as having “curative properties.”

The Alexanders built the three-story, 30-room hotel in 1903 (some accounts give 1904 as the year it opened). In 1905 they added a swimming pool reported at 255 by 70 feet, said to be the largest in Arizona at the time. The photographer Burton Frasher opened a studio there in 1914 and used it as a base to document the springs and the wider Southwest.

Later owners included Henry and Rose Hill, who bought the property in 1916, lengthened the pool and added private bathhouses, and Frank Farrell and partners from 1920. Jerry Hancock bought it in 1964, and his wife Irene ran the pool until the Arizona health department closed it in 1966 because the water was not chlorinated. From the 1970s on the property passed through a string of owners and groups, and the Eden Wikipedia article repeats a local story that the Rolling Stones stayed there more than once. The hotel stood until the 2008 fire.

Getting there (and why you should not)

Eden is a small community across the Gila River from Pima, which sits on US 70 roughly 15 miles northwest of Safford. Local roads cross the valley from Pima to Eden. The springs are a few miles north of Eden on county roads. Because the land is private and there is no public parking, trail or viewing area, there is no reason to go looking for it. Driving past gates or onto the property without permission is trespassing.

If you want to see where the old resort stood, stay on public roads and respect any signs. Do not climb on the burned walls, which are on private land and may be unstable.

Where to soak instead

The Gila Valley still has several legal places to get into hot water:

• Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area, about 35 miles southeast of Safford, is a BLM site with two tubs fed by a 106°F41°C artesian well, camping and OHV dunes. Entry is $3 per vehicle. BLM is relocating the tubs during upgrades that run to January 2027.
• Kachina Mineral Springs Spa, about 6 miles south of Safford, rents private indoor mineral tubs by the hour and books massages.
• Essence of Tranquility, around the corner on Lebanon Loop Road, has private tub rooms, casitas and tent sites.
• Roper Lake State Park, just off US 191 south of Safford, has a campground and, historically, a small hot spring tub. Check its page for the current status.

When to go

There is no visiting season for Indian Hot Springs itself. For the rest of the Gila Valley, October to April brings comfortable days and cold nights that suit a hot soak. Summers in Safford are very hot, and monsoon storms from July to September can flood dirt roads and washes.

Rules and etiquette

• Treat the springs as private property. Do not enter, park in driveways or use old directions that cross fences.
• Do not post the site as an open soak on maps or apps. Old listings with directions keep sending people to the gate.
• If the property ever reopens to the public, it will be on the owner’s terms. Check for an official announcement before you go.

Where to stay nearby

Safford is the base for this part of the Gila Valley, with chain motels, restaurants, groceries and fuel. Pima and Thatcher, between Eden and Safford, have smaller services. Essence of Tranquility rents casitas and tent sites, Roper Lake State Park has a campground, and Hot Well Dunes has BLM camping included in its $3 vehicle fee.

Safety notes

• Trespass: the main risk here is legal. Stay off private land.
• Hot water: the springs emerge at about 118°F48°C, hot enough to scald. Never try to soak in an uncontrolled spring at that temperature.
• Ruins: fire-damaged masonry can collapse. Keep away from it.
• Heat: carry water in summer, even for a short drive around the valley.