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 tunnelbug
      
Location: California
Gender: Male
 |  |  |  | Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
< on 1/23/2006 4:53 AM >
|  | | | Byron Hot Springs Hotel
In its hey-day, this was a hotel frequented by Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle, Clark Gable, Jack London, President James Garfield, and more. Eventually, the Great Depression hit the hotel hard and it fell into disrepair.
The United State MIS (military intelligence - i think this was before the CIA was formed) leased it in the 1940s to serve as an interrogation center for Japanese and German officers, and other prisoners of war.
While I walked across the burned out hull of the hotel, I could sense its opulence and grandeur. At one time, this was a hotel built by famous architect Julia Morgan and revered around the country. Today, I ordered a color postcard from 1908 featuring the place.
Any opinions? Anybody interested in buying a print? Let me know 
“Black Sulfur Springs” were used for bathing. When the waters of “Surprise Spring” were drunk, they had a strong (perhaps surprisingly strong) diuretic effect."
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The ceiling in the lower basement area.
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Exterior side shot of the four-story hotel.
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Windows. The rooms were very simple. Even though they were considered top of the line at the time, only the luxury suites had their own bathtub.
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The grand staircase, of which the floor was emblazoned with real marble.
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Palm trees adorned the grounds. They were burned out hulls of a bygone era.
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The ballroom to the left. I'm standing upstairs where the single and double rooms resided, along with a fireplace and billiard room.
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Various decorative closet hooks in a room's closet.
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The very modern elevator shaft.
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Disintegrated light switch in a stateroom.
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Grand staircase again.
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You literally could see a palm tree out of every window.
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Down into the ground floor.
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The bathroom of a cabin in an outlying quad of the hotel.
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[last edit 1/23/2006 4:58 AM by tunnelbug - edited 1 times]
Bearings: A Geographer's Blog
Member of the CTC |
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Explorer Zero
 
| | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 1 on 1/23/2006 6:46 PM >
| | | | only suggestion and this is a personal preference is I would liked to have seen the whole place, I mean an exterior wide shot of the fron etc
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frugalfinnagan
Gender: Male
| | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 2 on 1/23/2006 7:28 PM >
| | | | I am wondering if you seen the pools? I am a hot spring nut. I frequent the ones in B.C. Most hotsprings that I know of had hotels but there is just cement foundation. Nothing else.
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tunnelbug
Location: California
Gender: Male
| | | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 3 on 1/23/2006 8:42 PM >
| | | | Posted by frugalfinnagan
I am wondering if you seen the pools? I am a hot spring nut. I frequent the ones in B.C. Most hotsprings that I know of had hotels but there is just cement foundation. Nothing else.
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Yeah. I saw the old signs for the pools (as you will see the first photo has a carved rock that says "black sulphur," which is the name of one of the pools), but i never saw the pool itself, or any indication of hot water, though there were ponds in the area.
In regards to:
| only suggestion and this is a personal preference is I would liked to have seen the whole place, I mean an exterior wide shot of the fron etc |
Ask and you shall receive
Bearings: A Geographer's Blog
Member of the CTC |
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Explorer Zero
| | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 4 on 1/23/2006 11:07 PM >
| | | | Posted by tunnelbug
Ask and you shall receive
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thats what Im talking about maybe Im in the minority but I like the "big picture" shots just as well as the paint peeling or the light switch shots
cool building thanks!
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dundertits
Location: at the beginning
Cave Cave Deus Videt
| | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 5 on 1/25/2006 7:49 PM >
| | | | Jesus those are good pics what are you shooting with???
Viablex1
Kabbalah is an undramatic tradition that requires great patience and stability. One of the reasons for this tempo is that everyone has to mature his potential gradually and thoroughly at his natural pace. In this way his life's work unfolds at the right moment in his own and the cosmos's time.
Z.B.S. Halevi -- Kabbalah |
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tunnelbug
Location: California
Gender: Male
| | | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 6 on 1/26/2006 2:55 AM >
| | | | I was going to send you a PM with all the info, but I figured people would want to compare with their gear, so I'll post this on the public board:
I have three camera bodies, only one of which I really use (the canon 300D).
Canon 300D (also known as the Digital Rebel)
Canon EOS-3 (a great film camera)
Minolta SRT-101
Lenses for 300D
17-55 (i think that's the one that came with the 300D)
28-200 Sigma
300 Canon
Canon 580EX flash
Tripod
Wireless remote for long exposures
Full set of Cokin Filters, never use 'em
As far as these exposures. Sometimes you get lucky with light. It was a cloudy, overcast day, and I just happened to end up there around 3-5 p.m., when the sun is low in the Western Horizon, allowing a soft ambient light through the windows, but not too harsh (because of the clouds).
I shot with a tripod, because most of the exposures were 2 seconds or more, and I made sure there was an average aperture of about F16-20, simply because I wanted the detail in what was outside the windows to show up. Some of these were extremely long exposures with a closed aperture.
[last edit 1/26/2006 2:56 AM by tunnelbug - edited 1 times]
Bearings: A Geographer's Blog
Member of the CTC |
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dundertits
Location: at the beginning
Cave Cave Deus Videt
| | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 7 on 1/26/2006 4:45 PM >
| | | | I had just neve seen Black and white look that good from digital...is any of it shopped.
I am asking because I have the digital rebel XT and have tried different things with black and white but nothing looks as good as film at least not yet. I have a canon eos-3 and eos-1 which I love to death. I have a 550ex flash and have thought about getting a 580ex. I use filters all the time especially when shooting film but I went to a lecture about using filters with digital cameras as well. I have used my zeiss softar with some good results.
viablex1
Kabbalah is an undramatic tradition that requires great patience and stability. One of the reasons for this tempo is that everyone has to mature his potential gradually and thoroughly at his natural pace. In this way his life's work unfolds at the right moment in his own and the cosmos's time.
Z.B.S. Halevi -- Kabbalah |
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tunnelbug
Location: California
Gender: Male
| | | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 8 on 1/26/2006 6:38 PM >
|  | | | Yes. I do have the Nikon filter plugin for Photoshop CS. There's one filter in it called B/W Conversion, which allows you to set the filter color. I usually set a red filter, which ups the contrast and detail a bit.
Send me a PM, maybe I can send you the filter plugins.
Bearings: A Geographer's Blog
Member of the CTC |
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Rodent Stealth
Gender: Male
| | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 9 on 1/28/2006 12:51 AM >
|  | | | nicely done!
b/w always looks cool....the absence of color always makes abandoned buildings look that much more...ummm...errr.....abandoned (sorry, lowered the metaphor bucket into the well and came up dry)
RS
A slightly grumpy rat who enjoys going places he shouldn't |
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n8wood
Location: Rhode Island
shiny...
| | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 10 on 1/31/2006 2:14 PM >
| | | | Very nice pics, it looks like an interesting place.
My favorite is the ceiling shot.
http://flickr.com/photos/n8wood/ |
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tracybrian
| | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 11 on 5/6/2006 11:50 PM >
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Very nice pictures let me just add some history. I have been to the hotsprings many times in my life. Its kind of sad to see all of the detail of the outside of the hotel disappear so fast. Just last year there used to be a nice victorian in the front but it burnt along with the roof of the hotel. I have researched the history of the site on my blog along with the pictures I took, there are also plenty of links. This should shed light on the history of the byron hotsprings for the infiltration zine(I had a hard time researching.)
Pictures:
http://tracyreales...on-hotsprings.html
History:
http://tracyreales...-of-byron-hot.html
Future:
http://tracyreales...on-hotsprings.html
Addtional links:
http://tracyreales...ding-on-byron.html
Btw: I stumbled on this site looking for more pictures of the Hotsprings and I like it. I have a few suggestions for exploration around tracy, ca such as the old Holly sugar plant, coal mines near carnige, and underground water tunnels north of tracy that take water to LA(I have not found out how to access yet), and a 150 year old cript in the hills of tracy thats pretty cool. Byron hotsprings is by far my favorite historical site around tracy. Why is it not a registered historical site?
Posted by frugalfinnagan
I am wondering if you seen the pools? I am a hot spring nut. I frequent the ones in B.C. Most hotsprings that I know of had hotels but there is just cement foundation. Nothing else. |
1978, Jan. 31 Drill for hot springs and locate 3 hot water wells (one hot spring found at a depth of 140 feet. Water is 90 degrees Fahrenheit and flowing at a rate of 200 gallons per minute.) There are also a few bodys of water that are salty. I assume they may be the sulfer springs?
If this post is wrong in any way please delete.
If anyone has any vintage pictures of the hotel I would love to see them.
Brian
[email protected]
[last edit 5/7/2006 1:37 AM by tracybrian - edited 1 times]
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tunnelbug
Location: California
Gender: Male
| | | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 12 on 5/12/2006 6:35 PM >
| | | | Brian. The Bancroft library has a ton of photos and old brochures. The springs DO exist, I just think they're underground. It would take more drilling to bring the water back up to the surface. All of the pools have been pretty much demolished, though you can see ruins of some of them. The hotel is definitely the centerpiece, though I REALLY wish the old Victorian was still there. I envy the people that saw the place before the fire.
I like your suggestions for Tracy area explorations. Let me know if you'd like to meet up sometime to check out a few places. the sugar mill sounds intriguing. My e-mail is [email protected]
Bearings: A Geographer's Blog
Member of the CTC |
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scotteeyo
Location: Texas
Gender: Male
| | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 13 on 5/17/2006 1:57 AM >
| | | | Posted by 2Xplorations
thats what Im talking about maybe Im in the minority but I like the "big picture" shots just as well as the paint peeling or the light switch shots
cool building thanks!
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Agreed.
Very nice job with the pictures tunnelbug. The black and white seems to give the building so much character.
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evilbananalamb
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Female
not afraid of heights
| | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 14 on 5/17/2006 2:51 AM >
| | | | I am going to echo everyone else and say the black and white looks amazing. I would also like to see them in color. Great pictures!
http://evilbananalamb.deviantart.com/ |
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lasthourstand
Location: Syracuse, NY
Gender: Male
You've got head pigeons!
| | | | Re: Abandoned Hot Springs Hotel
<Reply # 15 on 5/17/2006 10:54 AM >
| | | | I think these are really nice shots! Looks like a cool location. My only recommendation would be to bump up the contrasts just a bit, some of them look a bit flat and others would just benefit from some extra shadow to increase that abandoned feel. Great work.
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