Soak In the Healing Waters of Halcyon
Tucked away long B.C.’s Arrow Lakes, Halcyon Hot Springs has been drawing visitors to its mineral-rich waters for more than a century.
Photo courtesy of Mitch Winton / KootenayRockies.com.
Nordic spas might be trending now, but mineral hot springs have long been used as a therapeutic treatment. British Columbia is home to more than 130 hot springs, thanks to the province’s many mountain ranges and fault lines, which allow water heated by the Earth’s warmer interior to rise to the surface through fractures.
One region of B.C., the Kootenay Rockies, is so rich in therapeutic waters that its hots springs form a “hot springs triangle” or a circle route, perfect for hot-spring hopping and road-tripping. One stop on the route is Halcyon Hot Springs, in the Arrow Lakes region, about four hours east of Kelowna. The site has a long and fascinating history, according to Melissa Wolanski, Halcyon’s hospitality manager. That history is due in part to the lithium-rich hot springs that feed Halcyon’s pools.
Photo courtesy of Don Weixl.
Like most hot springs in B.C., the healing waters in this region have long been known to First Nations, specifically the Sinixt. In the late 1800s, Robert Sanderson, a steamship captain who frequented the area, was introduced to the hot springs by a member of the Sinixt. Sanderson purchased 400 acres of land on Upper Arrow Lake, where he built a hotel and a series of wooden plunge pools fed by naturally heated mineral waters. He named the resort Halcyon, inspired by its peaceful surroundings in the mountains and along the lake’s shore.
The hotel officially opened in 1894 and changed hands several times over the years. In 1897, Robert Brett and David McPherson acquired the property, doubled the hotel’s footprint, and added a bottling facility to ship the healing waters farther afield. Then, in 1924, Brigadier-General Frederick Burnham, a physician who served in the First World War, purchased the resort to treat patients, including war veterans, suffering from rheumatism and arthritis.
“It was with the intention of bringing people out for the properties of the mineral water,” Wolanski explains of Burnham’s purchase. Mining companies would even send their miners out to Halcyon “to sweat the lead out of their bodies by using the mineral properties that are in the water,” Wolanski says.
Sadly, in 1955, a fire destroyed the property. Then, in the 1960s, a damming project raised the water level of the Arrow Lakes. “The original Halcyon is actually underwater,” Wolanski explains. In 1998, however, the resort was rebuilt within a kilometre of the original site, with four pools, a lodge, and cottages for overnight guests. “Halcyon is still connected to the original source from the 1890s,” Wolanski says. “The original spring is still up there.” The water arrives at the resort incredibly hot and is cooled to four different temperatures through a cooling system beneath the lodge: a hot pool at 40ºC, a warm pool at 37ºC, a swimming pool at 30ºC, and a cold plunge at 14ºC.
Thanks to modern-day testing, we now know that Halcyon’s waters contain a host of healing minerals, including sodium, magnesium, calcium, and strontium, in addition to the lithium for which the springs are known. Wolanski can attest to their rejuvenating properties. “For somebody who spent many, many years as a skier, I’ve got really wrecked knees,” she says. “I’ll soak in the springs for a half hour to an hour, and the next day, I can actually feel a marked improvement in the inflammation in my knees.”
Photo courtesy of Don Weixl.
The springs offer an immediate sense of relaxation. Sinking neck-deep into the warm waters, it’s easy to settle into the restorative experience. For those looking to make the most of the resort’s range of temperatures, a mini hydrotherapy circuit between the hot pool and cold plunge provides a bracing contrast, while the loungers offer a chance to take in the views over Upper Arrow Lake and across to Mount Burnham, named after one of Halcyon’s former owners. Many guests, however, are content to simply linger in the warm and hot pools.
Whether you opt for a hydrotherapy circuit, an extended hot soak, or something in between, a visit to Halcyon Hot Springs offers plenty of opportunity to unwind. “There’s something really special and magical about it,” Wolanski says. “I don’t know if it’s the ancestral history that’s here, along with the mineral content that we have, but it’s just a very relaxing and serene place.”
