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THE EVANS

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Fredrick Taft Evans SR. was born November 28th, 1835 in Parkman Ohio, and briefly attended the nearby Hiram College before traveling the country. In 1855 he went North and worked with the Wisconsin logging camp for a year and then the fall of 1856, he and two other men boated down the Missouri River to Davenport, Iowa and took a train to the city.

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On April 25, 1863, Evans married Theresa Beall and moved to Sioux City Iowa and built the first street railroad. ( I could not find more)

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In 1877 Evans settled in Deadwood where he learned about thermal waters Minnekahta, which is Lakota Native language meant "Warm Water" and later moved to the land and started developing the spa town in the "Banana Belt" of the Black Hills.

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On January 31st, 1883 and according to the Fall River County Commission, the name changed from Minnesota to Hot Springs but upon further research at the Hot Springs Library and browsing through the Helen McGee Archives (Found in the Helen McGee Collection, Volume II) the town was originally called Oella but two weeks later it was called Minnekatha. And on March 6, 1883, the town was later then called Hot Springs.

 At this time in 1883, the town was less than three-quarters of a mile which was divided between a lower town and upper town. The lower portion consisted of businesses as the upper contained big hotels, spas which were mostly owned by Mr. Evans.

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In 1886 Evans oversaw the construction of the Minnekahta Motel where he said visitors could stay in the warm, healing waters. It is said to be a three-story building with a bathhouse that felt more like a home than a hotel. It wasn't until three years later that in 1889 Mr. Evans purchased the supplies to make the Minnekathal Daily Herald but later sold it to have a hand in bigger projects. He also helped establish in 1890 the city's power plant and lighting system but also the construction of the water system.

On July 5, 1891, the first train arrived after pressing for the railway companies to accommodate Hot Springs. It was on September 16, 1890, that the Elkhorn reached the small town and encouraged Burlington & Missouri River Railroads to build into the town which resulted in the smallest Union Depot to be built out of sandstone too.

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Evans not only helped bring in the trains, the lighting source as well as water, but he also helped fund and build the Evans Plunge which on May 22, 1891, he invited all for a free swim. The Evans plunge was 70 foot by 200-foot pool and is known to be a warm-bodied pool and to this very day, it still remains. It is also reported in the archives that he also donated sandstone from the Evans to help build the St. Lukes Episcopal Church that on November 6, 1891, they began excavation and on August 31, 1902, the church was opened, but he donated to all churches being built in that year.

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In 1892, Evans had a home built for his family that sits upon a hill and overlooks the Depot, The Evans, The Plunge. This home is a Victorian home and now is called the Villa Theresa. It is a beautiful home that is rumored to be haunted.

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Mr. Evans became ill and his health declined that on October 11, 1902, he succumbed and passed away. However, his legacy lives on to this very day with Evans Heights, Evanston Street, The Evans Plunge as well as Evans Hotel, which is now called The Evans and low-income housing apartments.

Fredrick Taft Evans burial site can be found at the Evergreen Cemetery here in Hot Springs, South Dakota in the E Section, Block 3 Lot 5. If you do wish to go there, please just go and pay respects to a man who helped build the community.

 

THE FIRES

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The horrible fire in October of 1891 burned the Minnekahta Hotel to the ground as the first building was made of wood and rebuilt on the same plot of land. The completion of the new hotel completed and was reopened on August 5, 1892, and was built using pink sandstone from the quarry. Now I don't know if the actual date of this fire is correct as research had many dates but using the archives we did find a news article

On Wednesday, January 10, 1971, a fire raced through the historic Evans Hotel leaving a shell of the sandstone structure standing. According to the news article, the restoration project was just five months shy of completion.

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The blaze touched off on the fourth floor of the southeast corner and quickly spread to the entire fifth floor and gutted the Hotel in a matter of hours and thank the lucky stars there were no reported injuries.

According to the news article, The Evans Hotel was formerly called the Century House and it was to be converted into 85 apartments for the low income elderly under a federal housing program financed by Century House Partners.

 

THE COMMUNITY

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Like any other small town, there have been many stories of what used to be inside Evans back in the day and many have stated it was a Hotel, Restaurant, Coffee Shop, and Cascade Bar.

We do know that Evans had a swimming pool as well as what was previously stated above (hotel, restaurant, coffee & bar) but that it also was a beauty shop as well as a barbershop but also where the telephone company used to be too.

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Upon further research, in the Annex building which is an add-on to Evans, there was the maternity floor which also gave way to the Sisters Hospital? I am unsure about this as I did not find research to back this claim but many (community members) have stated such. If you ask anyone who resides in Fall River County, they could tell you endless memories, stories and what they remember but most say the Fire.

 

OUR INVESTIGATION

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Our clients, whose names will never be revealed, let alone their room numbers had contacted a team member, Aden Nelson, an investigator with South Dakota Ghosts Paranormal Team on February 10, 2020, and upon reaching out to them, we set up a time, date and location to meet with them.

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On February 17, 2020, we met with our clients at the Wandering Bison and might I add, this establishment is truly amazing and I highly recommend going there for your coffee and hunger needs. As we were there with them, they openly shared their stories with us and what they as well as other residents were experiencing and as much as I'd like to say it was a light task, it had the opposite effect. We knew we had a lot of work to do!

On February 29, 2020, the famous leap year, my team (Nancy, Aden & I) headed to Evans for our preliminary investigation and that included talking with the clients and getting their stories, but a complete walk-through of where these spiritual activities were taking place.

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Upon our walkthrough, we experienced quite a bit of emotion, from anger to sadness but felt many different sicknesses too. Some were feeling dizzy as though vertigo had struck them, feeling uneasy as well as getting random headaches and sick to their stomach. Not to mention the smells that came from these locations were overwhelming; smells of burned wires, decay, death, burning flesh. Yes I know that sounds made up and I wished it was but most of us confirmed with each other that it was indeed what we had come across.

Our clients did come with us during the tour and pointed out certain spots but also let us do our job of taking photos, picking up on things that were never told and so forth. Overall, it is a big but beautiful place and I am so happy we get to go in and investigate.

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