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Montana Geothermal Sites: Silver Star
SUMMARY INFORMATION:
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| AKA: BARKELL’S HOT SPRINGS Location: N 45.6898 W 112.2834 (T2S, R6W, S 1) Nearest town: In Silver Star, 22 miles SE of Butte County: MADISON Depth: Spring Temperature: 162° F Flow: 40 gpm TDS: 610 mg/L Chemistry: Not Available |
Site ID: Not Available LOCATE AND VIEW VIA NRIS DIGITAL MAP LOCATOR: Allows resizing of topos and access to aerial photographs. Sodium: 158.0 Potassium: 5.8 Calcium: 8.6 Magnesium: 0.2 SiO2: 98.5 Sulfate: 198 Chloride: 29.5 Fluoride: 8.6 |
Barkell’s Hot Springs is located in the small community of Silver Star. The surface water temperature is the second highest recorded in the state. Hot water was previously tapped by shallow wells and used to fill a commercial swimming pool. The springs are currently unused. Possible uses for the resource include space heating, greenhouse heating, resort and spa facilities.
The sparse population has stymied development, but there do not appear to be major restrictions to development. The predicted deep-reservoir temperatures for Barkell’s range from 230 to 290 F; the flow has been up to 150 gpm. There have been several geologic investigations in the surrounding area including regional gravity (Burfeind, 1967), soil temperatures (Goering, 1975), seismic survey (O’Haire, 1976, Weinheimer, 1977) site resistivity (O’Haire, 1977) and regional resistivity surveys (Malic, 1977). Phillips Petroleum drilled some exploration wells in the surrounding area but pursue development.
