Health Spas Through the Ages

In researching this topic for a novella that released last month, An Agent for Dixie, I was surprised to learn of the long history of people seeking out mineral baths for health reasons. One of the earliest known baths was discovered in the Indus Valley and suspected to have been built in 2500 BCE. In Roman times (300 BCE) public bathing was part of the general society, and the rich and poor enjoyed the popular way to gather and socialize.  Romans believed in thermalism (bathng in warm water) and thalassotherapy (bathing in seawater). Public baths were popular in Turkish (from about 600 ACE, called hammams, and the bathing habit was incorporated into important life events like marriages and celebrations of births) Russian (from about 900 ADE, called banya, and involved a cold plunge pool) and Japanese (from 500 ACE, called onsen, and thought to be started by Buddhist monks) cultures. The public bathing habit continued through the centuries, at times being more popular than others. By the 16^th century, interest waned following several wars which threw people into impoverished conditions and the suspicion that diseases spread in the baths, which was probably true.

roman baths, wikimedia

But anywhere n the world where hot springs bubbled to the earth’s surface, people figured out a way to submerge themselves. By the early 1800s, doctors took a renewed interest in balneotherapy (medicinal use of thermal waters) and hydrotherapy (immersion of the body in thermal water for therapeutic purposes). The ability to analyze the elements in the waters improved, and doctors prescribed patients to “take the waters” (pinpointing certain hot springs for individual ailments) for their health. As you might imagine, if a doctor recommended one hot springs for gout and another for arthritis and a third location for a skin condition, the “remedy” became a lengthy process, meaning that only the elite could follow such a course of treatment.


Owners of the hot springs, of course, wished their guests to remain as long as possible. Depending on the location, an owner might add carriage rides into a scenic countryside or up a nearby mountainside. Entertainment such as musical performances, acting troupes, dancing, promenades hung with art, and casinos were added for the patrons’ enjoyment. Fans of Jane Austen will have learned about Bath, England. Other famous European locations were Baden Baden in Germany and Victoria-Jungfrau in Switzerland.

Abbey circular bath, Bath, England from Wikimedia

Well-known locations in the United States are Steamboat Springs (CO), Colorado Springs (CO), Hot Springs (AR), Travertine Hot Springs (CA), Saratoga Springs (NY), Glenwood Springs (CO), Black Rock Hot Springs (NV), Fifth Water Hot Springs (UT), Granite Hot Springs (WY), Chena Hot Springs (AK), Sol Duc Hot Springs (WA). As you can see, any city with ‘springs’ or “wells” in its name probably hosted a health spa resort at some time in its past.


I’d love to hear about your favorite hot springs.

Blurb for An Agent for Dixie


Foreign diplomacy is the Zivon family business but Alexei resists the polite constraints, not lasting a year in law school. The four successful years working as a Pinkerton agent prove he was meant to follow a different path. Now, he’s faced with the biggest challenge of his career—training a female agent who has no practical skills. Alexei figures he can convince her to just observe as he solves the case, because nothing will interfere with his success rate.


Since childhood, Dixie LaFontaine lived in her older sister’s shadow but applying to become a Pinkerton Agent is her first major decision. Being matched with confident Alexei is intimidating, especially when the assigned case involves them pretending to be brother and sister at a health spa where jewelry has gone missing. Dixie has no qualms about pretending to be a French heiress needing care for her arthritis. Soon, she falls victim to Alexei’s charm and realizes that hiding her feelings might be as hard as ferreting out the thief among the spa’s clientele.


Will Dixie focus on learning the skills of an agent, or will she concentrate on turning her marriage of convenience into a lasting love?
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Mining Business Brings Luxuries To Virginia City

When writing a story, I often refer to a series of book titled Images of America (insert city name). What I particularly like is seeing how a town progressed from clapboard construction to masonry or brick buildings within a few years--often as a result of a fire sweeping through the town. The horrible event happened in a high number of cities--large and small.

From the business signs shown in the pictures, I can get a sense of the ethnic makeup. Seeing the density of businesses sharing a wall means that someone might have to walk halfway down or all the way around the block to go to a rear entrance--like for a delivery. Sometimes the streets are really wide. Often a well is seen in a downtown section. You can get a sense of the height of structures, as well as the architectural style. When I lived in Texas, I liked seeing the old buildings containing the year it was built somewhere at the top near the roof. Now, I look for those indicators everywhere.

My latest story, An Agent for Liana, is partially set in Virginia City, Nevada, which is a good example of a boomtown that became permanent. A large body of gold and silver ore (the Comstock Lode) was struck in 1859. Prospectors flocked to the area, and initially, the miners lived in tents and flimsy shacks. But as the strike was determined not to be placer (where just anyone would find flakes in a stream) but instead deep in the earth (where heavy machinery was needed to extract it), the way of mining changed. But people had already built shops or houses there at the edges of the holes miners went into to do their work.

source: Wikipedia

An 1875 bird’s-eye view map of Virginia City shows huge piles of tailings located on lots between streets. Conveyor belts ran from smelters or stamp mills to deliver the remaining rock once the precious metal had been extracted. Buildings are evident right next to the mounds. Businesses are built on both sides of the street where tracks for ore cars disappear underground.

The city itself is built into the side of Mount Davidson. Pictures in the Images book show the stepped foundation and inclined dirt streets. Walking from the bottom of the city to the top would involve a change in elevation of several hundred feet.


The Comstock Lode was so rich that the majority of the businesses in town performed tasks that supported the mining operation (stamp mills, foundries, assay, freighting, railroad, etc.) The city operated a gas plant that allowed for streetlights and gas heating for homes. Water and sewer lines provided modern utilities for shops and residents in a town with a population of approximately 7,000 people in 1877.


I recommend this series of books for when you want to see how life was back then.

An Agent for Liana released today and is part of the popular Pinkerton Matchmaker series. I hope the blurb entices you.


Loner Dale Claybourne spent the last five years as a dedicated and decorated Pinkerton agent. Confident in his abilities, he’s not afraid to face down thieves, swindlers and even murderers. But he quells at the mandate of having to train a female agent and, even worse, to marry her before receiving his next assignment.


Gregarious Liana LaFontaine served as a seamstress for the Denver Pinkerton Agency. Now she yearns for a taste of the adventurous life of being an agent. Her ability to speak several languages and her ease with getting people to talk are her strongest assets.


Impulsive by nature, Liana jumps into situations she doesn’t have the experience to handle. Dale fights his growing admiration for this French beauty while keeping close to guard her safety. At odds over almost everything, the pair has to solve the mystery of who is stealing from a Virginia City saloon—a task made even harder because of the wild attraction that shouldn’t be present in a marriage of convenience.

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Heroes of the West? The Pinkertons

Heroes of the West?

The Pinkertons

Allan Pinkerton, the founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency started off as a barrel maker, or a cooper. He liked working for himself instead of for someone else. He had a knack for investigating and while looking for raw material for his business, helped the police bring a bunch of counterfeiters to justice. After the locals heard what he did, they came to him for other things as well. Thus, it started him on opening his own detective agency.

The civil war boosted his reputation even more when he headed the organization that spied on the confederacy. After that, he went back to his agency but he was now known far and wide and the reputation of the agency was well known by the end of the war.

 After becoming quite famous as an agency, a woman named Kate Warne wanted to work for the agency. Allan Pinkerton was hesitant, he didn't quite believe a woman would do as good of a job as a man. Except she convinced him to let her try. She told him that a woman would be able to 'worm' out secrets that a man could not do.

She proved herself many times over. She dressed up as a fortune teller and talked the suspect into revealing crucial information which helped their case. Once, she even got friendly with the wife of a thief and convinced the thief's wife to tell her the exact location where the money was hidden. Pinkerton actually made a statement that she was one of his best agents ever. 

As one of the authors in a multi-author series, the Pinkerton Matchmakers, stories and tales of women sleuths is the main ingredient in these stories. In my story An Agent for Cari, we find the heroine on her very first assignment. The premise of these books are a bit different than real life, with the women having to team up with a male partner and marrying them in name only while they are out in the field. This idea was for propriety sake to save the women's reputation. 

Here is my contribution to the stories of women who were not only brave but helped to carve a place for others to be independent and part of American history:

  

 A woman who breaks all the rules - A man who lives by them - Can opposites attract while bringing down a notorious swindler before he kills again?

Cari Kyllikki won't allow her disability to hinder her dream of becoming a Pinkerton Detective. She has become a master of hiding her daily struggles. What she didn't count on was the Pinkerton Agent who is determined to uncover her secrets. All of them!

Michael Durango works strictly by the book; there is no deviating even a little bit. When he finds out what his new wife is hiding, he has a decision to make -- tell the agency and risk her losing her job or keep her secret and complete the case. If only he could tear his thoughts away from her long enough to decide.

What does Michael do to protect his partner and solve the case? Will their suspect kill again, or turn his attention to the Pinkertons on his trail? Will Michael and Cari find love along the way, or will her secret tear apart everything they believe?

An Agent for Cari is available on Amazon