Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

United States Idaho Bannock County Lava Hot Springs

Quick Facts

Lava Hot Springs is a small city in Bannock County, Idaho. It is located on the Portneuf River and is noted for its hot springs.

City Hall

City of Lava Hot Springs
115 W Elm
Lava Hot Springs,ID 83246
Phone: 208-776-5820

Resources

Cemetery

The cemetery for Lava Hot Springs is located south of the city. An index to the names of persons buried there is available online.

Churches

Catholic

• Our Lady of Lourdes
  132 S. 1st. St. West
  Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246
  Ph. (208) 547-3200
  Chapel served by Good Shepherd of Soda Springs

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Lava Hot Springs Ward
400 west 2nd North

Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246
Ph. (208) 776-5692

The Lava Hot Springs Ward was created in 1915. In 1942, it absorbed members of the Lava Ward and the Dempsey Ward, which were rural wards near Lava Hot Springs. The records for these Wards are housed at theChurch History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Membership records for the Lava Hot Springs Ward, 1916-1948, have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or in any of its Family History Centers.

Community Church

Lava Community Church
118 W Elm St
Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246
Ph. (208) 776-5661

Directories

The Idaho State Archives in its collections has copies of city, county, state and regional directories.

Funeral homes

Marsh Valley Funeral Home
421 Center St
McCammon, ID 83250
(208) 254-3786

History

Lava Hot Springs owes its existence to the hot springs, which even in the days of the trappers were well know and occasionally utilized in the interest of health, and when the Oregon Short Line railroad was built through Portneuf Canyon these springs became easy of access to many people who camped occasionally by them to enjoy the benefits to be obtained from their healing qualities. Yet in 1914 there were only two or three houses where the town of Lava Hot Springs now stands. A regular sanitarium was opened at the springs in 1914, and in 1917 a first class hotel was built with 30 rooms. Many quests and patients have been cured from the effects of rheumatism and other diseases. The total population of the Lava Hot Springs Precinct was 1,068 in 1930.

Additional history of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho and the early Mormon settlers there can be found in:
Andrew Jenson. Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company, 1941, p. 417.

Newspapers

Historical

Some attempts have been made to publish newspapers in Lava Hot Springs, although most of the news of families residing in the Lava area was and is reported in newspapers published in Pocatello, Idaho. A few issues of Lava Hot Springs newspapers are housed in the Idaho State Archives in Boise, including:

Lava Lyre -- 20 Jan. 1933 through 7 April 1933

Lava Hot Springs Bulletin & Bancroft Standard -- 7 Jan. 1938 through 15 Apr. 1938

Lava Record -- 11 Nov. 1948 through 31 Mar. 1949

Societies, Libraries and Museums

The South Bannock County Historical Center in downtown Lava Hot Springs has a very modern display of the history of the area, a small collection of local histories and biographies, and a bookstore where local histories are for sale.

South Bannock County Historical Center
110 East Main
Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246

Lava Public Library
33 E Main St
Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246
(208) 776-5301

Websites

Lava Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce