Sam O Spring
Sam O Spring is a warm spring about a mile from Baker City, in Baker County, a few paces off the nearest road. It runs lukewarm, pleasant on a hand and not much more. The record does not say who owns it or if you are allowed to visit, which matters for a spring this close to a town's edge.
A roadside point, a dozen yards from a road that the record does not name. Baker City sits near 3,500 feet with winters that pile up several feet of snow, plus a moderate seventeen inches of precipitation. Neither manager nor land unit is given. Peavy Cabin, the nearest overnight on file, is twenty-four miles out.
Best months on record fall in winter. Roadside access, no walking. The access question is open on file, so ask locally before stopping. No fee is listed. At eighty degrees the water suits a wade more than a soak.
Aircraft with laser scanners measured this ground to within inches. The scan strips out trees and buildings, leaving the bare shape of the land around Sam O Spring.
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 63 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
A slice through the ground from northwest to southeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 23% of the springs on this site.
Heat flow measures the warmth working its way up through the ground from deep inside the earth. Where it runs high, rain and snowmelt that seep down through cracks in the rock come back up hot.
See every spring on the geothermal heat map →
Heat flow estimate: Stanford Thermal Earth Model (Aljubran & Horne, 2024), CC BY 4.0.
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Overview Peavy Cabin was built in 1934 by Dr. George Wilcox Peavy, Dean of the School of Forestry at Oregon Agricultural College (later Oregon State University). The facility was used as his outdoor laboratory to instruct forestry students. The cabin was then turned over to the Forest Service and used as a guard station. Several restoration projects have kept the integrity and charm of this historic structure, which is now recorded in the Heritage Resource Inventory as a historic site. Thi...
Sam O Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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