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111 Main Street

Welcome to Essence of Life Day Spa & Deli ~ A Place To Refurbish and Replenish Your Body and Soul!

Essence of Life Day Spa offers nails, hair, tanning, massage, and gifts. Our deli has succulent food that is hand crafted and made to order and home of our famous Friday night $7.99 dinner special: Whickahoney BBQ rib dinner! Grain fed beef or pork ribs, slowly grilled to perfection in our select house BBQ sauce! Or maybe it is Italian you prefer. We have that too!


The story behind our famous Whickahoney ribs:

Whickahoney (pronounced whick-a-hone-ee) was a stage stop established in 1887 along the banks of the Whickahoney Creek, which is located on one of the furthermost regions of southern Owyhee County. Weary travelers could rest and partake of a home cooked meal.

Whickahoney is derived from the Paiute Indian language meaning, "plenty water" the Paiute and Shoshone tribes would winter along the Whickahoney Creek, partaking of the fresh water salmon from the creek. The Dunning's carved a Dugout home in the banks of the creek; they immediately began to cultivate and plant apples trees, garden, and raise beef. As people traveled through the area some stayed and a post office was built. Today we proudly serve you a meal reflective of the traditions of the Whickahoney stage stop.

More interesting historical information:

Essence of Life is located downtown Marsing. The city of Marsing (first name Butte City) was a ferry port for the pioneers traveling to Silver or Ruby cities. During World War II, it housed camps for the German and Japanese. The area is reflective of Tuscany, Italy, in climate with the orchards and vineyards.

Owyee County is rich in history of Indian wars, mining silver, copper, gold, rubies, a portion of the Oregon Trail, stagecoach stops, and pioneers. The name, Owyhee, comes from early fur trappers. In 1819, three natives from Hawaii, part of Donald McKenzie's fur-trapping expedition, were sent to trap a large stream that emptied into the Snake River. When they did not return, McKenzie investigated and found one man murdered in camp and no sign of the others. The stream was named in their honor. "Owyhee" an early spelling for the word, Hawaii.