T-minus 36 hours

[bdann]

At the time, it wasn't. And the walls were higher.

Yep, it was an actual masonry building. Seems to have withstood the elements until it was abandoned and then this locally important piece of history allowed to decay by the NPS.

My understanding is the bathhouse was destroyed (with dynamite) by the NPS in the 1950s. 
You can see an early photo (with the roof) and a later photo (with no roof) of the bathhouse here:
http://www.nps.gov/bibe/historyculture/upload/hosp-hsr.pdf
The photo with the roof is also in Langford's book.  I have a digital copy of the photo somewhere, but apparently not on my laptop. 

[Al]

bdann, excellent!  Downloaded and saved.

Al

[presidio]

My understanding is the bathhouse was destroyed (with dynamite) by the NPS in the 1950s. 

Okay, explosively accelerated decay then. Anyway, this is in direct conflict with the NPS preservation mission and there is no way this building wasn't understood as historically significant to the regional history at the time they took it down. They did the same with almost all the ranch houses, actively preserving only Homer Wilson's place at Blue Creek. The Nail Ranch was allowed to decay as was Dodson's. The rest were destroyed.

I don't mind if they just let structures go to the elements as is happening to the above and at Terlingua Abaja, but I always think of their largely-well-hidden-from-public-knowledge destructive and incompatible stunts in many parks whenever I hear people gush over how great a preservation/management organization they are.

[Al]

My understanding is the bathhouse was destroyed (with dynamite) by the NPS in the 1950s. 

Okay, explosively accelerated decay then. Anyway, this is in direct conflict with the NPS preservation mission and there is no way this building wasn't understood as historically significant to the regional history at the time they took it down. They did the same with almost all the ranch houses, actively preserving only Homer Wilson's place at Blue Creek. The Nail Ranch was allowed to decay as was Dodson's. The rest were destroyed.

I don't mind if they just let structures go to the elements as is happening to the above and at Terlingua Abaja, but I always think of their largely-well-hidden-from-public-knowledge destructive and incompatible stunts in many parks whenever I hear people gush over how great a preservation/management organization they are.

Agreed.  Apparently the hot springs were recommended for a high level of protection which was not provided by the park service.  I have always been told the bathhouse was washed away by a flood in the early '50s.  Maybe the bath house had deteriorated to be point of being a safety hazard.  It is VERY interesting though that the myth of being washed away has been propagated. 

Al

[BigBendHiker]

At the time, it wasn't. And the walls were higher.

Yep.  And, the walls were quite thick.  According to his writings in the book "A Homesteader's Story", the walls on the side that faced upstream (and therefore bore the brunt of the water flow) were 3 feet thick.


BBH