Joining in heritage
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 4 months AGO
Sherry Xiao, owner of Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort, stands in front of one of the resort’s luxury cabins.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The cabins at the Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort include hot tubs with both tap water and mineral water from Soap Lake.
The Inn at Soap Lake, now part of Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort, is the oldest extant building in Soap Lake, built in 1911.
The Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort has a private beach for guests to make use of both the lake water and the Soap Lake healing mud, and also offers wedding packages on the lawn.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | May 30, 2025 3:00 AM
SOAP LAKE — Soap Lake has a long history as a resort and health spa town, and that tradition is coming back, one piece at a time.
“People come here, and they’re surprised,” said owner Sherry Xiao. “They say ‘Wow, I didn’t know this place existed.’”
The Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort is actually a combination of several facilities, some of which date back to Soap Lake’s heyday as a health resort. There’s the Inn at Soap Lake, the oldest building in town, built in 1911 from round river rock. There’s a collection of cottage suites behind the inn. There’s Notaras Lodge, with cabins built from enormous logs in the 1970s. And there’s the Lakeside Bistro, formerly Don’s Restaurant. All of them are within easy reach of the shore of Soap Lake, and the resort and the inn have their own private beach.
The city of Soap Lake had a second water delivery system for lake water to a large part of the town at one time, but over the years it fell into disuse, said Acting General Manager Robert Zerfing. Today the Soap Lake Resort is the only property that still pipes water directly from the lake, he said.
“There's far too many people that are local that don't know (this place) exists or what it is,” he said. “It's a crying shame because there is so much history in this location … a very rich, awesome, amazing history. And it's a history that everybody should know.”
The idea for the resort came in January 2016 when Xiao and her husband took the long way home to Seattle from a vacation in Leavenworth. Driving through the Coulee Corridor, they saw that the Inn at Soap Lake was for sale and decided to spend a night there. The Soap Lake water cleared up a skin condition her husband had been struggling with, Xiao said, and left her skin so soft she could still feel the difference a week later.
“The water really surprised us,” Xiao said. “This is one of the (few) lakes in the whole universe that is accessible with this kind of mineral content.”
The Xiaos bought the inn in March 2016, and then a few months later made a deal for Notaras Lodge and Don’s Restaurant when the owner decided to retire. In the process, they also picked up most of the block between SR 17 and Canna Street and Main and First avenues. The Inn at Soap Lake has been completely remodeled, she said. Notaras Lodge needed some work to restore the cabins to their former glory, including staining and repairs to the logs that make up the cabins.
“Those logs, when I took over, probably nobody had (maintained them) for 15 or 20 years,” she said. “This place was falling apart. And those logs are so expensive to insure because you can’t replace them.”
The Notaras lobby has a cafe in it as well, and the Lakeside Bistro is completely renovated inside.
Zerfing has been working to get the word out that the resort is more than just a local curiosity, he said.
“I set up a deal with (two) golf courses, one in Moses Lake and (Lakeview Golf and Country Club near Soap Lake) for stay-and-play packages,” he said. “I’ve been setting up packages for hunting. We have a hunting guide who comes out for geese and ducks. We’re looking for a fishing guide that we can contract with because we have a lot of fishermen that come through here.”
Xiao would like to continue expanding, she said, possibly putting in a full-sized hotel or apartments or some senior housing. If she were just a businessperson looking to make a profit, she said, she probably wouldn’t have invested in the resort the way she has, but she feels like Soap Lake deserves it.
“For some reason, people in Soap Lake, we have a lot of volunteers,” she said. “People are really dedicated to this town. They really love it … I think it's good for the locals to know there's a little resort here.”
The cabins at the Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort include hot tubs with both tap water and mineral water from Soap Lake.
The Inn at Soap Lake, now part of Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort, is the oldest extant building in Soap Lake, built in 1911.
The Soap Lake Natural Spa and Resort has a private beach for guests to make use of both the lake water and the Soap Lake healing mud, and also offers wedding packages on the lawn.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
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