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Mineral Springs
The mineral springs in the Soda Springs area are charged with sulphur dioxide, calcium carbonate, and sodium silicate, products of their long journey through Paleozoic limestone bedrock. Formation Springs, northeast of town, has a large travertine terrace deposit.

(above) Abandoned townsite of Conda, looking north, (May, 1992). The streets remain but the houses have been removed. One of the open pits of the abandoned Conda Mine is to the right of the industrial buildings. The buildings served until 1991 as a loading facility for phosphate ore brought by slurry pipeline from the new Simplot mine at Smoky Canyon, about 30 miles east. The Conda mine began as an underground mine run by the Anaconda Copper Company, and was last operated by the J.R. Simplot Company. The dry tailings pond from the mine is behind the railroad tracks. The railroad cars are probably in storage.

Monsanto elemental phosphorous plant north of Soda Springs. View looks east toward the Conda Mine. Highway 34 and the Union Pacific Railroad are just east of the plant, (May, 1992). The Ballard Phosphate mine north of Soda Springs, operated by NuWest Industries, (October, 1992).
(bottom center)The municipally regulated geyser in Soda Springs looking south. Under normal conditions the geyser is allowed to erupt about every half hour, (March, 1996). Warm waters of Hooper Spring, north of Soda Springs. The waters are naturally carbonated and are allegedly tasty for making root beer. In the 1890s the Idan-ha' Natural Mineral Water Company shipped bottled water from the Soda Springs area all over the world, (October, 1989).

References

  1. Carney, Ellen, 1990, Ellis Kackley, Best Damn Doctor in the West: Bend, Oregon, Maverick Publications, 283 p.

  2. Carney, Ellen, 1992, The Oregon Trail: Ruts, Rogues and Reminiscences: Wayan, Idaho, Traildust Publishing Co., 332 p.

  3. Haines, Aubrey L., editor, 1965, Osborne Russell's Journal of a Trapper: University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 191 p.

  4. Johnson, Elaine S. and Carney, Ellen, 1990, The Mountain: Cariboo and other gold camps in Idaho: Bend, Oregon, Maverick Publications, 245 p.

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