Salts Of The Earth At Carson Hot Springs

CARSON, Skamania County - Women wrapped in sheets are stretched out in the silent room, side-by-side on cots as if they were in a mummy morgue.

Sweat pours from around their closed eyes where a slit of skin is open to the air. Inside the tight-wraps of fabric, hearts beat with so much force it's a wonder the cots aren't rocking.

Out with the toxins, in with the minerals - that's the idea behind the hot bath treatment at Carson Hot Mineral Springs Resort.

This informal resort on the Wind River is tucked into the foothills of Mount Adams at Carson, an almost non-existent town on the Washington side of the Columbia River.

The resort is almost 100 years old and still looks pretty much as it must have in 1897. The buildings, which probably had their last new coat of paint about that time, bring to mind the word "funky."

And funky is how the many regulars like it.

The attraction at Carson's is not the resort, but the water: hot, steamy and smelling of the salts of the earth.

It comes directly from hot springs on the Wind River, from which it is pumped up the hill and then piped into the resort bathhouse, entering the rows of porcelain tubs at a sweat-popping 126 degrees.

The bath experience at Carson's is not a hot-tub party of the 1990s, but is reminiscent of the good old days when people "took the baths" for their health.

The bathhouse is a bare-light-bulb sort of place where a friendly attendant greets a you with a towel and directs you to a dressing room.

Once stripped, the bather tiptoes through the "morgue" of already bathed and resting women into a room of huge porcelain tubs each separated by a curtain. (The men's half of the bathhouse is not so modest - the tubs are all in one room and there is a cold tub where bathers take turns cooling off.)

Bathers have a choice - long (7 feet) or short tubs - and then the attendant turns on the tap.

"Drink four or five glasses while you bathe," the matronly woman says handing over a paper cup. The water tastes like it smells, but, like medicine of old, the worse it tastes the more it supposedly does for you.

"Our mineral water has been used the past century for the treatment of: arthritis, skin afflictions, poison oak, kidney disorders, internal disorders, neuritis, rheumatism, stomach disorders," says a resort brochure. Those with heart problems are warned to stay away.

Limp and happy

Bathers can adjust the temperature of the water with a cold water tap, but hotter is considered better. The attendant leaves a bather to soak in water up to the neck for 15 minutes, long enough for the heart to start banging.

Then, with the help of the attendant, the limp bather is led into the quiet sleeping room, stretched out on a cot and swathed in a choice of wraps: tight, medium or loose (tight, of course, is said to be best).

When suffocation seems imminent, the attendant whispers, "And now the blankets," and the bather is cocooned again, this time with wool blankets. For the next 30 minutes, there's nothing to do but sweat and relax - which is just the point.

Massages - which must be arranged for in advance - are done by a cadre of masseuses who come to the bathhouse to pummel the now post-bath, prune-like bodies into blobs of total relaxation.

There is sometimes a wait for the baths; it's easy to tell who has already had one - the people with the red faces and half-closed eyes.

Carson Hot Mineral Springs Resort is the only one left of what once was a number of bath houses built on the Wind River to take advantage of the natural springs.

They were discovered in 1876 by Isadore St. Martin, after whom the hotel is named, when he was out hunting. He built tent platforms to accommodate travelers who were brought to the site by steam boat and then horse team.

Business flourished to the point that St. Martin built the hotel and general store in 1897. A row of connected cabins was added to the resort in the early 1920s.

Unfortunately for St. Martin, he was murdered with a pocket knife in a fight with a customer over the quality of the water.

Keeping it simple?

For the past nine years, Japanese corporate interests have been nosing around the resort and rumors about its sale are still active. However, owner Helen Hegewald wants to keep the resort in the family for now, says resort desk clerk Darla Wilkerson.

"The customers are satisfied with what we are offering," she said, noting that the rustic resort has no television, radio or phones in the rooms.

Carson's loyal following is just as glad it won't be turned into a posh resort.

"I'd never be able to afford it," said a young woman from Portland who frequents the baths and even brought her bridesmaids there on her wedding day.

Many come just for a hot bath, towel wrap ($8) and the optional massage ($32 for a one-hour massage). But overnight lodging is available in either connected cabins, with balcony, or the sparsely furnished hotel. There's a campground of sorts for both RVs and tents. No frills

Visitors should not come looking for a yuppie vacation - there are no frills. (The campground, for example, is really a parking lot, and the hotel beds are on such a slant that one person falls out while the other spends the night clutching the uphill bedpost.)

But the funkiness has a certain charm and no one tells you to "enjoy."

The hotel restaurant serves basic meals and Washington wines.

On weekends, Carson's fills up. Reservations for rooms and massages should be made six to eight weeks in advance for weekend visits, though weekdays are more open. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU GO

Getting there: Carson Hot Mineral Springs Resort can be reached from Interstate-5 by taking Highway 14 east at Vancouver, Wash. From Eastern Washington, take Highway 97 out of Yakima south to Highway 14 and head west. Watch for the Wind River Junction and follow the signs to the resort.

Hours Daily, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Reservations for the baths and massages can be made in advance. The restaurant is open until 8:30 p.m.

Accommodations: Lodging ranges from $34.50 for hotel rooms to $42.50 for housekeeping cabins to $120 for the one hot tub suite. Tent space is $4.50 per day, RVs $12.50 per day.

Reservations and information: Phone Carson's at (509) 427-8292.

Nearby activities: The town of Carson is a small village of tackle shops and antiques. Fishing is said to be good on the Wind River, and the nearby Dog Mountain Trail is popular for wildflower viewing.

Theresa Morrow is a freelance writer from Bainbridge Island.