Conference Papers Database New search

Idaho Hot Water Prospectors: Case History

Tremblay, Richard B.

Key words
Direct Use; Low Temperature; District Heating; Exploration; USA; Idaho; Wells; Snow Melt; Natorium; Resort; Steam Boat; Swimming Pool; Water District; Space Heating; Idaho State Department Administration
Location
Boise, Idaho
Conference
Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
Year
1979
Session
Direct use; District heating/cooling; Financing; Energy mark
Language
English

Full text

Open the paper

Opens in a new tab

Abstract

In 1890, four Idahoans set the state for the nation's current interest in geothermally heating buildings and homes. These pioneers of hot water prospecting were W.H. Ridenbaugh, H.B. Eastman, Timothy Regan, and J.W. Cunningham. The east end of the Boise Valley had long been recognized for the peculiar plot of land that always seemed to be warm and free of snow in the coldest of winter months. There the team of hot water prospectors drilled two, four hundred feet deep, six inch wells. the reward for such an imaginative and globally unprecedented effort was a gushing daily output of 800,000 gallons of 172°C water, and what may soon become the largest direct use geothermal system in the national

Copyright 1979, Geothermal Resources Council. Readers who download papers from this site should honour the copyright of the original authors, and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the original publisher.

Attend the 2026 Geothermal Rising Conference. Meeting details
You have opened 0 records today from 216.73.216.139 (216.73.216.139).
Viewed 25 September 2026, 9:45 am.