TERWILLIGER HOT SPRINGS.

Byline: Scott Maben The Register-Guard

BLUE RIVER - Drugs and late-night drinking are mostly a memory at Terwilliger Hot Springs, commonly called Cougar Hot Springs. Vandalism and car break-ins are down, and families and locals are back.

Officials still see occasional problems at the popular clothing-optional soaking spot in the Willamette National Forest near Cougar Lake, a large reservoir on the South Fork McKenzie River. But the scene is nowhere near as wild as it was for much of the 1980s and '90s, when many longtime fans of the primitive natural spa learned to stay away.

In an effort to stop a wave of problems, from littering to theft to drug sales, forest officials imposed several restrictions over the years, including barring camping in the immediate area.

They also prohibited use of the hot springs at night, banned alcohol and imposed a visitors' fee of $3 a person. Violators can be fined $50 to $75.

Not all frequent visitors embraced the restrictions at a place revered not just as a recreational hot spot but as a spiritual and therapeutic retreat. The fee, introduced five years ago, kept some from using the springs.

But others credit the changes with transforming Terwilliger back into the clean, quiet forest retreat that beckoned crowds in the 1960s and '70s.

"It's a beautiful, sacred place, but it was getting out of control," said Cyrus Tavallai of Eugene, who has frequented the hot springs for 25 years.

Many visitors brought trouble with them, Tavallai said. He recalled rowdy behavior, unleashed dogs, drinking and broken bottles.

Forest Service officials cracked down, working in cooperation with locals who wanted to keep Terwilliger open to the public and preserve the tradition of nude bathing there, said Tavallai, an electronics technician and student at Lane Community College.

"I have been critical of the Forest Service, but I think they should be praised on this subject," he said. "It has become a safer and better place for everyone."

On a recent sunny afternoon, Tavallai enjoyed a soak in the top pool, the hottest of six descending a lush gulch above Rider Creek.

Several other men lounged in the steaming water, including one seeking relief from a sore leg.

Soon, three University of Oregon students arrived and climbed into the next pool down.

Some vandalism, late-night trespassing and drinking still occur at Terwilliger, but that's not much for an area that attracts about 50,000 visitors a year, said John Allen, McKenzie River District ranger.

"It's not a perfect place, but no hot springs is," Allen said. "It is one of the better-managed, safer, family-friendly places now."

That wasn't the case in the mid-'90s, a time local residents remember for a series of assaults and arrests at and near the springs.

"We had a real influx of people who had a bad attitude," said Ken Engelman, longtime editor and publisher of McKenzie River Reflections, the local weekly newspaper. "The draw was the hot springs and an anything-goes attitude. ... The mellowness was gone and a hard edge came to it."

The problems weren't confined to Terwilliger. In communities up and down the McKenzie River, businesses and residents complained about homeless and transient campers, panhandlers and shoplifters.

Melanie Stanley, manager of Meyer's General Store in Blue River, recalls it was especially bad between 1992 and 1996.

"I'm usually very open to what anybody's lifestyle is," Stanley said. "But some of these people were just downright right off the scales. They would make your local customers nervous."

Perhaps more than anything, the $3 fee at Terwilliger seemed to drive that element away, Stanley said.

"I think that's basically the biggest change: People feel more safe with the area in general," she said.

Forest officials confirm that the fee program, coupled with the night closure, have helped chase off most drug use and other problems.

"I'd say it has removed 95 percent plus of the potential for unsafe or criminal behavior," Allen said. "Since we started the fee system, we've really not had the person-on-person crimes."

Forest Service officers check the area almost daily, often at night, and receive assistance from state police and Lane County sheriff's deputies.

The Forest Service also made several physical changes around the hot springs. It reduced the size of the parking area at the trailhead, leaving room for about 20 cars. It replaced composting toilets near the springs and built new restrooms at the parking lot.

The agency also built rock steps and support walls to make navigating the springs safer, and it erected a pair of covered wardrobes where bathers can change and hang their clothes and towels.

Officials also designated a spot to tie up dogs along the trail a short distance before the springs.

Many of the improvements were funded by revenue from the $3 fee, which raises about $34,000 a year.

The Forest Service also pays a contractor, Maria Jensen of nearby Rainbow, to clean the hot pools weekly in summer and every other week in winter.

Jensen has lived there for 27 years and said she has "a very deep connection and love for the place."

She saw the bad times. Twice her car was burglarized. But she says the hot springs are better now than they've been in a long time.

"Generally speaking, it's been very, very good up there," she said. "It really is amazing how it stays pretty well picked up. If people leave trash, someone is right behind them to pick it up."

CAPTION(S):

Bathers enjoy recent improvements, including rock work, at Terwilliger Hot Springs near Cougar Dam.