[2] The hot springs in this geothermal area were used for centuries by the Indigenous people in the region, the Kalapuya, Wasco, and Molalla, for medicinal and spiritual purposes.

[3][4] In 1873, a Willamette Valley farmer John Minto, a Willamette Valley statesman and farmer began developing a transportation route over the Cascade Mountains, wrote in a 1903 memoire, that Henry States, Frank Cooper, and himself had named hot springs after meeting a one-armed hunter named John Breitenbush, who was camping near the hot springs.

[1] In 1897, John Hollingsworth began managing the hot springs and in 1904 the upper and lower pools became two separate soaking areas.

[2][3] The mineral content includes analcime, anhydrite, calcite, calcium, chalcedony, lithium, magnesium, microcline, muscovite, sodium, sulfate, potassium, and quartz.

[7] The Western Cascade rock formations include the pumice-rich, crystal-vitric Breitenbush Tuff, tuffaceous sandstone, the Detroit Beds, and mudflow breccia.