Oregon: Fees Seem To Curb Trouble At Popular Hot Springs

BLUE RIVER, Ore. - A fee program at Terwilliger Hot Springs, a popular gathering spot in the Cascades east of Eugene, seems to have eased growing problems of drug dealing and violent crime.

The U.S. Forest Service instituted a $3 charge last year for use of the natural, steaming geothermal pools, and "we've had positive feedback and many fewer complaints, particularly from businesses," said Blue River Ranger Lynn Burditt.

In a year's time, a recreational region overrun with hot-springs users, campers, drug dealing and other crime has become noticeably more peaceful, many area residents say.

Others contend the fee has kept poor people away from the area.

A Fee Demonstration Project approved by Congress in 1998 allows the Forest Service to charge for entrance to the hot springs.

The program allows the Forest Service to put funds it collects back into the area to improve trails, rebuild campgrounds and bathrooms, and increase law enforcement. The agency estimates that about $28,000 per year will be collected.

The fees - and the stiff fines imposed on those who fail to pay them - has cut down on what had become overwhelming crowds in the springs and campgrounds. Less than one-third of the normal number of visitors returned for the Fourth of July weekend and Wednesday's opening of the Oregon Country Fair, Burditt said.

Cougar Reservoir, a favorite gathering place for followers of the Grateful Dead, the Oregon Country Fair and the Rainbow Family, has drawn thousands of visitors every summer since the mid-'60s, when a Forest Service road provided easy access to the springs and nearby camp spots.

A public transit bus from Eugene travels to the entrance of Cougar Reservoir Recreation Area several times a day, for a $1 fare. Two years ago, the 7.5-mile Forest Service road that winds through the mountains to the springs was jammed day and night with hitchhikers, said Charlene Mikkelsen, a Forest Service technician.

Visitors who streamed into the area throughout the summer set up camp villages in the woods around Terwilliger, Mikkelsen said. Hundreds of campers stayed until late September, traveling to nearby villages every few days to buy or beg for food.

Residents say they've prepared every July for the extensive tent villages and outdoor kitchens that pop up in campgrounds around the area. They've tolerated the nudity, the partying, the panhandling and the violence. But two years ago, for many business owners and community members, the situation finally became overwhelming.

Harbick said the crowd around Cougar Reservoir became more "dangerous."

"We had a constant problem of people coming to the store bothering the customers, getting aggressive and shoplifting," Harbick said. "It got to the point where a lot of our customers were afraid to get out of their cars."

Although many people are drawn to the hot springs for spiritual renewal and cleansing, said Mikkelsen, a few came to sell drugs and prey on vulnerable young people who bathed nude in the pools. Forest Service law officers were inundated with reports of drug dealing, prostitution, sexual assaults and, in 1996, even murder.

Jacob Israel, a daily visitor to the springs and a member of the counterculture Rainbow Family, said the fee was aimed at subcultures and designed to keep certain groups out of the area."There are just as many people coming there, but now you just don't get as many poor people," he said.