SPATIAL, CHEMICAL, AND TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF CHANGES OF SPRINGS, SODA SPRINGS, CARIBOU COUNTY

The town of Soda Springs, Idaho and the surrounding area are dotted with hundreds of natural cold-water springs. During the 1800's, Soda Springs, then known as Beer Springs, sat on the Pioneer Byway and had been a major stopping point for travelers. Several springs within the area, described by travelers and explorers in the 1800's, have been lost to history. Over the last 150 years, municipal development, road building, agriculture, and industry have destroyed or changed several springs. Hooper Springs is alleged to have bubbled more prior to the building of a damn north of town, Mormon Spring is dry, and Mineral Heights Spring discharge slowed when the Soda Springs Geyser was drilled. Notable springs like Beer Springs, which gave the area its original name and known for its beer-like taste, and Iron Springs were located somewhere near Bear River and Soda Creek. With the filling of Alexander Reservoir in 1924, Steamboat Springs, named for its steamboat like sounds as it gushed water, and hundreds of smaller springs along the Bear River were submerged. Ammonia Spring, described by Lawrence Bruner in 1878, allegedly vented ammonia gas and had been used for medicinal purposes, but only exists now in Bruner's journals. Review of journal, archival maps, and archival aerial photography will aid in determining changes over the last 150 years. Geologic processes modified the spring previously in the area based on Holocene tufa deposits and inactive cones seen both today and by writers in the 1800's. Water chemistry from four springs described by Hutsinpiller and Parry in 1985 and Mitchell in 1976 indicate the springs are of bicarbonate, calcium bicarbonate, and calcium sulfate types. Additionally, Mansfield categorized several unspecified springs as iron-rich, in 1927, though never performed any chemical analysis. With the knowledge that all the springs are bicarbonate, the springs are divided into sub categories of calcareous, sulfurous, iron-rich, and non-mineralized based on concentrations of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, SO₄^2-, and Fe²⁺. Samples were collected from 16 active springs and analysis of the major elements and minor elements will contribute to the descriptive characteristics of the springs. Locations, similarities, differences, and changes among the springs are the combination of fieldwork, chemical analysis, and historical research