Hot Springs Hotel and Brewery: Rockwell’s Station
Hot Springs Hotel and Brewery was a Utah Pony Express station, inn and brewery founded in 1856 by Porter Rockwell at Point of the Mountain, modern-day Bluffdale, Utah.
A sketch made of the property
AI’s attempt at an artist’s rendering of the property
In Harold Schindler’s biography, “Orrin Porter Rockwell”, it states: On July 29, 1858, Orrin Porter Rockwell counted out $500 and purchased from Evan M. Green sixteen acres of real estate at Hot Springs near Point of the Mountain (on the road between Great Salt Lake City and Lehi). The trail was traveled by every city bound trooper in Johnston’s Army. Mr Rockwell had it in mind to build a place where a man could buy a glass of home brewed beer, stable his animals, stay overnight, or just stop to pass the time of day. He called it the Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel. In it’s prime this property included a hotel with dining facilities, stable, brewery and a Pony Express station. At the peak of business, the Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel claimed to produce 500 gallons (16 barrels) of “good lager beer” each day.
Originally the Inn and Brewery was a venture of Porter and 2 business partners. Eventually all the partners sold their share to Porter who operated the business independently.
It is said that Porter had a favorite rocking chair in the front room of the inn from which he could watch out the window at traveling coming and going.
A picture of the original stable before it was torn down. Stones from this building were used to build the monument and marker that sits near the site today.
The Pony Express closed in 1861 after the establishment of the transcontinental telegraph but the Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel continued to operate for several years after.
Location and Historical Marker
There doesn’t appear to be any definitive clarity on the original location of The Hot Springs Hotel and Brewery. It was “near the point of the mountain” and 10 miles south of another pony express station called “Trader’s Rest Station.”
Most historians feel the exact location is now occupied by the State Prison.
In October 1934 a marker was erected by an Adult Aaronic Priesthood group of East Jordan Stake and the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association. The marker was constructed of stones from the original stable.
That marker has since moved a few hundred feet but is still effectively in the same place.
The brewery was Utah’s first[a] and at its peak is said to have been able to make 500 gallons of beer a day.