WHERE WE ARE

Manley hot springs

Manley Hot Springs is located about 5 miles north of the Tanana River on Hot Springs Slough, at the end of the Elliott Highway, 160 road miles west of Fairbanks.

In 1902, John Karshner, a mining prospector, claimed several hot springs and began a homestead and vegetable farm on 278 acres. At the same time, a U.S. Army telegraph station and trading post were built. The area became a service and supply point for miners in the Eureka and Tofty mining districts and was known as Baker’s Hot Springs, after nearby Baker Creek.

In 1903, Sam’s Rooms and Meals, now called the Manley Roadhouse, opened in the community. Ambitious farming and livestock operations in the area produced fresh meat, poultry, and produce for sale. In 1907, miner Frank Manley built the Hot Springs Resort Hotel. The resort was a large four-story building with 45 guest rooms, steam heat, electric lights, hot baths, bar, restaurant, billiard room, bowling alley, barber shop, and an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool that used heated water from the hot springs. Local estimates of the area’s population in 1910 was more than 500.

Several early gold discoveries ensured that Manley Hot Springs would become a busy, if small, community, and the hot springs kept it alive during periods of mining inactivity. Today, it is a mixed rural community of about 100 residents located at the western terminus of the Elliott Highway.