Lava Hot Springs, Bannock County, Idaho Genealogy

United States Idaho  Bannock County  Lava Hot Springs

Quick Facts
Lava Hot Springs is a small city in Bannock County, Idaho. It is located on the Portneuf River and is noted for its hot springs.

City Hall
City of Lava Hot Springs 115 W Elm Lava Hot Springs,ID 83246 Phone: 208-776-5820

Cemetery
The cemetery for Lava Hot Springs is located south of the city. An index to the names of persons buried there is available online.

Catholic

 * Our Lady of Lourdes 132 S. 1st. St. West Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246 Ph. (208) 547-3200 Chapel served by Good Shepherd of Soda Springs

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Lava Hot Springs Ward 400 west 2nd North

Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246 Ph. (208) 776-5692

The Lava Hot Springs Ward was created in 1915. In 1942, it absorbed members of the Lava Ward and the Dempsey Ward, which were rural wards near Lava Hot Springs. The records for these Wards are housed at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Membership records for the Lava Hot Springs Ward, 1916-1948, have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or in any of its Family History Centers.

Community Church
Lava Community Church 118 W Elm St Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246 Ph. (208) 776-5661

Directories
The Idaho State Archives in its collections has copies of city, county, state and regional directories.

Funeral homes
Marsh Valley Funeral Home 421 Center St McCammon, ID 83250 (208) 254-3786

History
Lava Hot Springs owes its existence to the hot springs, which even in the days of the trappers were well know and occasionally utilized in the interest of health, and when the Oregon Short Line railroad was built through Portneuf Canyon these springs became easy of access to many people who camped occasionally by them to enjoy the benefits to be obtained from their healing qualities. Yet in 1914 there were only two or three houses where the town of Lava Hot Springs now stands. A regular sanitarium was opened at the springs in 1914, and in 1917 a first class hotel was built with 30 rooms. Many quests and patients have been cured from the effects of rheumatism and other diseases. The total population of the Lava Hot Springs Precinct was 1,068 in 1930.

Additional history of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho and the early Mormon settlers there can be found in: Andrew Jenson. Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Company, 1941, p. 417.

Newspapers
Some attempts have been made to publish newspapers in Lava Hot Springs, although most of the news of families residing in the Lava area was and is reported in newspapers published in Pocatello, Idaho. A few issues of Lava Hot Springs newspapers are housed in the Idaho State Archives in Boise, including:

Lava Lyre -- 20 Jan. 1933 through 7 April 1933

Lava Hot Springs Bulletin &amp; Bancroft Standard -- 7 Jan. 1938 through 15 Apr. 1938

Lava Record -- 11 Nov. 1948 through 31 Mar. 1949

Societies, Libraries and Museums
The South Bannock County Historical Center in downtown Lava Hot Springs has a very modern display of the history of the area, a small collection of local histories and biographies, and a bookstore where local histories are for sale.

South Bannock County Historical Center 110 East Main Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246

Lava Public Library 33 E Main St Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246 (208) 776-5301

Websites
Lava Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce