New owners look to return Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs to former glory

When driving on Highway 2 near Saco, a huge, banana yellow slide shoots up from the prairie and re-minds people of what once was at the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs. For nearly 100-years, people have soaked in the springs, reaped the health benefits of the natural flowing mineral water and enjoyed family trips to the destination in order to beat the heat or warm the soul, depending on the season.

Michelle Simpson is one of the people that remembers the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs in its glory days. She is a graduate of Whitewater High School's class of 1991 ...but back then she was Michelle Lefdahl. She met her husband, Dennis, six years ago when she used to frequent another hot springs, this one in Bozeman, Mont. Dennis purchased the Bozeman site 20 years ago and turned it into a flour-ishing destination for local and tourists alike.

"When I was little and we would head to the Sleeping Buffalo, we would travel the approximately 20 miles from Whitewater on the gravel roads," Michelle said. "I would be sitting in the back seat with my siblings waiting to see that big blue slide come out of literally nowhere and all I could think about was getting my wrist band on and racing up to the top. For me, it was as if our parents took us to Disney-land or something."

The two have been married for a little over a year and as a wedding present to themselves, the couple bought the Buffalo Hot Springs near Saco with hopes of returning the site back into the hotspot it once was. Before the purchase, Michelle said that the two toured the site and she wasn't sure of what they might be getting themselves into. She said that the site was in major disrepair after years of neglect and that she was somewhat surprised by the demise of the once beautiful spa.

Not so for Dennis.

"Even though I hadn't seen it before, it wasn't really a surprise to me," Dennis said. "This was in about the same condition that the Bozeman Hot Springs was in when I got it. These things, if you don't take care of them, deteriorate quickly."

Dennis said that he and Michelle met with the previous owner of the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs over the span of a few days in attempts of hammering out a deal to purchase the location. No deal could be worked out and the idea was put on hold. Over the next 2 years, they kept in contact with George Knudsen and Knudsen informed them that there would be a sheriff's sale for the site.

"We decided we would do it," said Dennis.

In the infancy of the project, it was still yet undetermined what exactly would be refurbished immediately and what they would wait on until later. The Simpsons were confident in their abilities to restore the site – especially so since they have the assistance of Michelle's parents, Vic and Mary Lefdahl, her sister, Kirsten Albus and her husband Aaron Albus, and brother Ryan Lefdahl. With no lack of confidence in themselves and their team, the Simpsons only question was what the public's reaction to the project might be. They had heard the stories of how the hot springs had turned from one which was a family-friendly to one which was not and they weren't sure how hard it would be to restore the public's admiration of the Buffalo Hot Springs.

It was at this point that Michelle decided to turn to social media as a way of dipping her toe into public opinion.

She started a Facebook site to let the people of Phillips County know that the Buffalo Hot Springs was under new ownership and to keep people abreast of the changes going on within the area. She said that she would have been happy to receive a 100 "likes" – the website's way of following specific topics – but the response went above and beyond what she had hoped for.

"It was crazy," she said. "We got 100 likes on the first day."

The Sleeping Buffalo Facebook site was created on April 2 of this year with the site's first post declaring the "Official Start of Remodeling." Since then, 2,659 people have joined the site and have been able to follow the remodeling through a surplus of photos and the site is now followed by over 12,000 internet users. Michelle said that she has been overwhelmed by the support and interest in the project.

"It's people from across the Hi-Line who are getting updates," she said. "From Havre to Wolf Point and everywhere in-between. People who I went to high school with, or people my age from Malta. Even kids who are in high school now. Everyone is just very excited to see this place coming back. It is really touching."

"It's really cool that this means so much, to so many people from such a huge distance," added Dennis. He said that he initially interned to do some minor refurbishments, open the springs to the public and then slowly progress with the enhancements. It was through the Facebook site, however, that he decided to go full-bore into renovating the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs.

"The response has been incredible," he said. "It has shown me that this is being supported heavily by not only the local community, but also by people from as far away as Canada."

The teardown stages of the project are complete and all the efforts are being focused on putting things back together. The Simpsons are trying to use as much local help as they can and local companies are encouraged to put in bids on work that needs to be done going forward.

The ultimate goal for the Simpsons is to make the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs back into the wonderful place that it originally was. Dennis said that since starting the renovation that nine huge dumpsters have been filled with old, rotten materials and that at least another nine dumpsters will be filled and hauled away before everything is complete.

"There was sheetrock covering all the beautiful, original rock-work that was done out here," he said. "The more that we tear down, the more we find the beauty underneath. People are seeing (via Facebook) the old hot spring emerge through all the junk that was here and they remember how wonderful this place was."

Dennis said that all the old motel rooms – which are overrun with mice and insects – will be torn down and will be replaced with structures more reminiscent with those that were originally in the area.

There will be a number of major changes made to the hot springs as people once knew them, chief among those changes will be the configuration of the pools themselves. Besides draining the pools each night, there will also be the addition of pools with variations in temperature. There will be a hot pool, an ice cold pool and one with a temperature right in the middle for children.

"There will also be a large steam room and sauna," Dennis added.

For as well as the renovation is going, not everything is in the hands of the Simpsons and not every-thing has gone smoothly. Dennis said that a major factor moving forward is dealing with the State of Montana. He said that he intends to make all of the swimming spots at the hot springs flow-through pools, meaning that none of them would have chemicals added to them. The problem is that the hot springs sat unattended for so long that many of the permits have lapsed and the state now has the right to require that the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs be brought completely up to code which would mean adding the aforementioned chemicals into the natural mineral water.

"To me, that ruins the water," said Dennis. "The community doesn't want this to be like a public pool with a bunch of chemicals, they want it to be a natural hot springs with natural water."

He said that there is enough of the natural mineral at the Sleeping Buffalo to allow for a complete draining and refilling each of the pools each night, adding that in the past the water was only being cy-cled through once or twice a year.

"That way, people are swimming in clean, fresh water every day," he said. "But the State, when they get their hands in it, are looking in a book and if it doesn't fit that book for a public swimming pool, they would want us to add to water that is already perfect. You don't need to add anything to some-thing that is already perfect. We are going to hold our ground, not only for us, but for the benefit of the people who are going to be using it."

One of the questions about the hot springs that the Simpsons hear is when will the site be open to the public and how much will it cost. Though nothing is concrete as of yet for either, Michelle said that the couple is shooting for an opening date near the end of July or beginning of August and that there will be different packages to purchase.

"I keep telling people that it will be affordable," she said.

The old water slides will all be removed from the site as they had become dangerous and unsafe. Dennis said that if enough public support flows through the hot springs that the Simpsons will do everything in their power to bring back each item that has been removed.

"We will add everything it could possibly need if people support it," he said. "Slides are a great thing, but we are going to take potential accidents out of here and make this not only a safe place, but a healthy one."

The property that the hot springs is located on has been subdivided numerous times over the years and now is held by several different owners. It is the Simpson's intent to get the entire area back under one ownership to make it one cohesive unit.

"Done correctly, this could be huge for the entire county," Dennis said. "We are talking about making this a destination spot for everyone. We are trying to work with adjacent landowners to make this the best it can be for the community."

Dennis said that George Knudsen has been an amazing factor in keeping the hot springs alive so that he and Michelle could make the purchase. He said that both Knudsen and Adeline Oliver are the two main people who have allowed the Simpson's to do the work they are now doing.

"We didn't really have much here growing up as kids," Michelle recalls. "You had the Villa Movie Theater in Malta and the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs. For people to have this again, I think, is a great thing for the community."

The Simpsons said that the Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs will be managed by Kirsten Albus and that the Simpson's couldn't have asked for a better bunch of people to care for the facilities.

"When Michelle and I can't be here it will be in good hands with the Lefdahl family," Dennis said.

"It has been my dream for 25 years to see this place cleaned up and restored," said Lefdahl. "This seems to be the sentiment shared by many that they have waited for someone to take on this project and clean it up"