Simone and the Third-Floor Window at Boulder Hot Springs

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated August 27, 2026 · How we verify

Sulphur steam, a veranda lined with rocking chairs and a ghost who reportedly gets her own cup of tea: Boulder Hot Springs sits in Peace Valley beneath the Elkhorn Mountains in Jefferson County, Montana, and it has been trading on all three for a long time. The inn, spa and retreat centre is a working business with real mineral baths, and it is also the subject of one of the most persistently retold ghost stories in the state, that of a woman known as Simone.

Quick Orientation

• Where: southeast of the town of Boulder on Montana Highway 69, in the corridor between Butte and Helena. Boulder lies roughly 35 miles north of Butte and 27 miles south of Helena, at an elevation of about 4,990 feet.
• Built: 1863, according to the inn’s own account of itself.
• Listed: the Boulder Hot Springs Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, one of only three listed buildings in Boulder.
• Status: open, with rooms to book and baths to use.
• Reported figure: “Simone”, said to have been a prostitute from the property’s early years.

Why a Hotel Ended Up in Peace Valley

The setting explains the building. Boulder, named for the many large boulders scattered nearby, was established in the early 1860s as a stagecoach station on the route between Fort Benton and Virginia City, and it grew into a trading centre for surrounding ranch country and for the Elkhorn, Comet and Baltimore mining districts. The Great Northern Railway branch line from Helena to Butte reached Boulder in 1888, which put the valley within easy reach of two of the richest towns in the territory.

That is the market the hot springs served. Wealthy vacationers came for the mineral water, and the inn’s history records three U.S. Presidents among its guests, along with assorted celebrities. Mineral cures were not a fringe interest in this part of Montana: the area around Boulder is still home to commercial “health mines” where, by testimonial, exposure to radon gas is claimed to relieve auto-immune conditions such as arthritis. The claim is contested, and the practice remains controversial given the well-documented ill effects of high-dose radiation on the body. It is worth knowing the local context, because it shows how long people have been travelling to this valley expecting the ground itself to fix them.

The property has not spent its whole life as a resort. Over the decades it has operated as an addiction treatment centre, a dude ranch and a working cattle ranch before returning to its present role as a healing and retreat centre. The long veranda survives, fitted with 50 rocking chairs looking out across the valley, which is as good a summary of the building’s appeal as any brochure.

The Story of Simone

The legend attached to Boulder Hot Springs is specific in a way that legends often are and records rarely are. Simone is said to have been a prostitute working at the hotel in its early days, and to have been killed by a jealous mining executive from Butte. No verified account of such a death is offered alongside the story, and it should be read as tradition rather than documented history. What is documented is the surrounding world that makes the tale plausible on its face: a mineral resort within a short rail journey of Butte, at the height of Butte’s copper money.

What Guests Say Happens on the Upper Floors

Reported experiences at the inn are consistent rather than dramatic. Guests and staff describe:

• Perfumed scents with no traceable source, drifting through corridors and rooms.
• Sudden cold spots.
• Soft footsteps in halls where nobody is walking.
• A woman in a white dress seen looking out from a third-floor window.

All of these are visitor accounts. None has been verified, and a rambling nineteenth-century hotel with mineral steam moving through it is a building that produces drafts, temperature swings and noises on its own. The third-floor window sighting is the detail most often repeated, and it is the one worth noting if you are the sort of visitor who checks the facade before going in.

A Teacup for the Ghost

What makes Boulder Hot Springs unusual among haunted lodgings is that the management does not treat Simone as a problem to be managed. Owner Anne Wilson Schaeff has publicly accepted the story and gone further, setting aside a room dedicated to Simone and reportedly pouring an extra cup of tea for her. The inn has also offered “Ghost Vacations” built around the wider area, including day trips to the nearby Elkhorn ghost town, one of the old mining camps whose district once traded through Boulder.

Visiting Boulder Hot Springs

This is a place you stay rather than tour. The draw is the mineral bathing, the mountain setting and a historic hotel that has never been polished into blandness; the ghost story is an extra rather than the product. Rooms and bath access are booked directly through the inn, and availability varies with the retreat calendar, so confirm before driving out. The turn-off is southeast of Boulder on Montana Highway 69, an easy detour off Interstate 15 for anyone travelling between Butte and Helena. Bring layers: January averages around 20 degrees Fahrenheit here, and annual snowfall averages about 33 inches, which is part of the reason a hot spring in this valley has held its appeal for more than 150 years.

See Boulder Hot Springs for Yourself

Sources

• City Hall
• ArcGIS REST Services Directory (Census (official))
• Find a County
• U.S. Census website (Census (official))
• Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas (US Census Bureau)
• Wikipedia: Boulder, Montana

Address: 31 Hot Springs Rd

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