The Cherokee had been coming to the natural hot mineral springs for generations before Indian Scouts Henry Reynolds and Thomas Morgan "discovered" them in 1778.

A tavern was built near the mineral springs around 1788. Ruffians, villains, cattle drovers and even a few law-abiding travelers came to this popular spot in the early years of the nation. On the edge of the original Wild West, the area had a reputation for murder and debauchery.

Warm Springs – as it was then known – continued to prosper in large part due to the opening of the Buncombe Turnpike in 1828. This toll road ran from Asheville through Warm Springs and into Tennessee. The tavern became a popular hotel to accommodate the additional business. Zebulon Baird Vance, who would become the Civil War Governor of North Carolina, worked as a clerk in the hotel in 1828.

In 1830, Wade Hampton, later known as a war hero and governor of South Carolina, built a summer cottage behind the hotel. In 1832, brothers James W. and John E. Patton bought the hotel and made extensive improvements to it. At the time, it was considered one of the most beautiful resort hotels in the East. It had the second largest ballroom in the state and during the summer season attracted as many as 1,000 visitors at a time. Much of the hotel and the stables were destroyed by fire in 1838. In less than a year, repairs were made, and the hotel reopened.

The two-story brick Patton Hotel had a piazza that fronted the river and sported 13 columns to represent the 13 colonies.

After the Civil War, the hotel and springs became an even more fashionable destination. Expanded railroad service opened up the area to even more tourists.

The Patton – now owned by the Rumbough family – once again was destroyed by fire. This time it would not be rebuilt. The Southern Improvement Company, which bought the land and the springs, built the four-story Mountain Park Hotel and North Carolina’s first golf course in 1886. During the construction, a warmer spring was found, and the town was renamed Hot Springs.

The 200-room hotel – designed in an elegant Swiss style – featured electric lights and steam heat. Its modern bathhouse featured marble pools filled with the hot mineral waters. A typical treatment plan consisted of 21 days of baths and massage therapy.

The southeast’s first organized golf club with a nine-hole golf course was adjacent to the hotel. It was called the Wana Luna. The tees and greens were square.

The Southern Improvement Company went bankrupt in the process of rebuilding the resort and offered the property back to Col. J.H. Rumbough. He bought it and once again became owner and manager of the famous hotel that had catered to the fashionable crowd.

Business continued to go well at the hotel until the outbreak of World War I. Travel slowed and Rumbough looked for alternative sources of revenue. He negotiated a contract with the War Department to house Germans who were in N.Y. Harbor on luxury liners when war was declared.

So, 2,500 passengers, officers and crew came by train to Hot Springs for the duration of the war.

The industrious German men built a small village on the lawn of the hotel using scrap lumber, driftwood and flattened tin cans. They even built a chapel large enough for a few worshippers out of flattened Prince Albert Tobacco tins.

A flood in 1916 decimated the town. No lives were lost, but the inhabitants watched as the flood carried downstream cotton bales, animals, caskets, and even a whole house with the rocking chair still rocking back and forth on the porch.

Another fire in January 1920 claimed the elegant hotel, ending an era of high life. Rumbough died in 1924, and his daughter acquired the property. She built the Hot Springs Inn on the property with the intention of it becoming a sanitarium. Unable to achieve this, she conveyed the property to the Catholic Church for a retreat and rest home. Remote Hot Springs had few Catholic residents, and the property was used only briefly for this purpose.

For years, Hot Springs was virtually forgotten as a tourist destination. Today, it is again a haven for those seeking rest and relaxation in the heart of North Carolina’s welcoming high country.