The Story
Founded in 1888 about nine miles south of Hot Springs, Cascade Springs was a planned resort community banking on a warm mineral spring producing roughly 2,000 gallons per minute — even larger in volume than the springs feeding Hot Springs itself. Plans called for a 36-block town and a four-story, hundred-room hotel, but the grand resort never materialized. Only the Allen Bank Building — which doubled as the resort's bath house and sanitarium — survives; it was listed on the National Register in 1984 as "the only surviving building of a failed resort community." The warm cascades still flow, now a Forest Service swimming and picnic spot.
Surprising Facts
→ The spring produces about 2,000 gallons of warm water per minute — developers thought it could out-draw Hot Springs.
→ The 1888 plan called for a 36-block town and a 4-story, 100-room hotel that was never built.
→ Only one building survives, listed on the National Register in 1984 specifically as a failed-resort relic.