(For vintage article on current 'ownership', scroll down past end of editorial)

(click here for beginning of editorial)

Some of the writings here, while dated, done years before shutting bathhouse and new 'owners' showed true murky colors, still provide food for thought and are relevant in brainstorming any possible future of the Springs, beyond current abysmal stranglehold of place.

As a result of inappropriate 'ownership' changes of Stewart Mineral springs operation, critically including forbidding mindful nudity in course of spa outside private tub, the health and freedom-minded lifestyles of untold hundreds of locals and regionals thousands more on the national and global level have been sorely compromised for years now.

Many repeat visitors from far beyond area and overseas, some only familiar with Stewart's --  over time website's been viewed by Chinese, Czechs, Spaniards, Japanese, Canadians, Russians, Germans, British and French -- were no doubt also stunned and dismayed. They'd now nowhere to go to enjoy their accustomed bohemian Euro-style spa resort experience while touring U.S.'s West Coast. (Harbin re-opened, but some had always preferred Stewart's more intimate scale, setting, and lack of former's Bay-Area influenced, sometimes bold and lascivious air.

Of course such radical body freedom was only one component of the Stewart Springs experience. But it was a vital one. Some might even say it served as the linchpin that, for all open-minded, free-spirited visitors, enhanced all others -- like  the place's spectacular depth in nature, healing waters, rare vortex energy, historic rustic ambiance --  to a profound, almost supernatural level.

Some (like writer) first gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking the new absentee stewards (yes, a grievous oxymoron) were not intentionally trying to alienate customer base but were simply clueless, unaware how such an action would spark a firestorm of adverse reaction from the sea of then-faithful supporters.

During their dubious course of management, doggedly intent trying to convert place to suit their own super-structured, buttoned-down, quasi-new-age shtick, the thinking might've been that being in seller's market business would naturally continue to thrive by tapping a boundless mainstream/upscale market. And it would grow despite -- or even because of -- the radical shift in operation...which, after all, was (from their possibly skewered viewpoint) only upsetting a few low-spending, kinky locals. Ones that, truth be told, they no longer necessarily wanted as patrons.

For while they'd gotten rid of  the once-loyal bohemian support base they hadn't attracted enough visitors of other persuasions...maybe, assuming wanting to go essentially private, not even enough gung-ho on Pneuma's convoluted formula for achieving enlightenment through long pricey workshops, retreats and two-year certification programs, or select outside group willing to accept new strict, limited scene and drink the kool-aid.

And even in the trey unlikely event they ever DO gain viable traction despite shuttering bathhouse and closing down  the historic heart and soul of the place, one salient fact would forever dog outfit: a new customer base -- or exclusive private use, even -- built over the intentional destruction of long-established, free-spirited popular culture would forever brand the outfit for their reckless, spirit-crushing usurpation of a globally popular establishment.

Every day would serve as a tragic reminder of 'owners'' shocking betrayal of place's one-time long-nurtured, cooperative, unassuming air. It'd be more than a tad self-defeating (and detached from reality) to advance outfit's purported overarching aim to raise global consciousness over the very ruins of the place's long-established and beloved healing and rejuvenating culture. 

Maybe, too, thinking was there might be a riot if day visitors long accustomed to nudity option were one sultry 90-degree day abruptly told, "Sorry, you've gotta cover up now. No more nudity for you. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Tell your friends!"

Yeah, that would've worked. 

Easier to spring it when it was too cold for going bare outdoors for any but all the bravehearts making accustomed heroic icy plunges into the freezing creek waters.

They couldn't be persuaded to allow even one clothing-optional day a week to accommodate the legion of more freespirited long-term fans -- local, national, and international -- who'd so long supported and revered the place and far preferred enjoying it au natural...or were at least okay with it, so long as the body-liberated scene was kept on the chill side.

people an absolute slam dunk.

However it came down, it's profoundly sad...and more than a tad ironic, in light of Pneuma's transpersonal psychology branch having historic roots in human potential movement that included nude group-therapy workshops in the late 1960s, held in such places as Esalan at Big Sur, CA (practice made a feature story in Life magazine).

Getting renewed in

the nude eschewed

It suddenly allowed nudity in the sauna, outer sundeck, and creek's cold plunge area while requiring covering in halls, lobby, and inner sundeck by bathhouse door. It was a compromise hammered out to try accommodating everyone's lifestyle as best possible. Though at times unwieldy and even seemingly arbitrary, it worked. more-or-less, making the place more inclusive of varied visitor backgrounds and, many would agree, becoming far more healing, uplifting, and rejuvenating resort for it. see History

positive body acceptance of toddlers that was perhaps thought forever lost? But at the risk that such radical departure from deep-entrenched social norms potentially causes unsavory scenes and misbehavior if not keeping an ever-vigilant, mindful handle on things?

Or does one try to avoid causing vague to intolerable discomfort by the many either in seeming denial of human biologic reality or who simply prefer to keep covered out of modesty and/or to avoid unwanted attention (or simply not wanting to awaken from oppressive, conventional-behavior conditioned dream), and so insist it's not unreasonable to demand that EVERYONE keep covered during public portions of spa regimen, by God...even in bohemian stronghold of northern California amidst gentle nature, which on exotic 90 degree days could beg to be more fully enjoyed through a bit of lighthearted skinnydipping, nude sunbathing and sauna-ing?

that can magically expedite and enhance a spa's regimen's purification and rejuvenation potential.

Of course, as a result of Stewart Springs hybrid, 'cool here, not cool there' policy,  it was on one level neither fish nor fowl.

Though it became tenuously, kinda-sorta c/o, it never became a full-fledged nude-friendly spa retreat, joining others in the regional sisterhood of rural mineral spring resorts. This was at least in part due to lack of any planned freebody zones, place having had a long tradition of perma-wrapped mindset,  with clothed visitors and  often body-freedom indifferent workers striding by tubrooms and into sauna and out onto deck and down to creekside putting a damper on more would-be freebody enjoyment.

business volume would drop off cliff if allowing it. And be condemned by the public morality police, possibly along with  'ownership's' associates, family and friends.

...one, again, that included many comfortable with clothing-option even if passing on option themselves. To repeat (at risk of sounding like a stuck record), they no doubt sensed that such body freedom -- besides creating a far more relaxed atmosphere conducive to deep purification, letting go, and rejuvenation -- enabled individuals to develop positive body acceptance and experience giddy physical liberation after a lifetime of society's mandated body oppression while in public.

It could make for easily fast-tracking re-integration of body, mind and spirit on profoundly higher levels. 

It can't be stressed enough: having the option to be mindfully clothesfree, alone or among others, amid the wild harmony of nature during a relaxing spa regimen is a rare therapeutic and often liberating experience. 

It's one that helped distinguish Stewart's as a progressive-minded retreat haven, championing, albeit ever so tenuously, a policy eminently support-worthy in our neurotically perma-dressed world. Result: life-changing liberation from crippling body shame -- the dam preventing radical body acceptance suddenly burst -- quickly enabling re-integration of body-mind-spirit on higher levels.

and work out a more reasonable, realistic, doable c/o compromise. (But hey, with coronavirus supposedly prompting permanent bathhouse closure, no problema.)

Before policy liberalized, two current tub rooms, #2 and 3, were changing rooms -- no tubs then -- spaces with actual doors, far better accommodating changers while preserving modesty by gender. 

Would You Bathe

With Your Clothes On?

 In cold weather it was sheer torture.

Then there was the safety concern. One's coming out of coldplunge in winter with sheet on and navigating often slippery stone steps was made more difficult and accident-prone, encumbered with suddenly heavy, more binding, drenched cloth that one suddenly became preoccupied with lest some dread wardrobe malfunction should occur. It detracted crucial focus from avoiding missteps or losing traction on sometimes slippery rocks and suffering a real mishap.

Again, even though nudity was banned before 2000 under Foggy, an exception was made for the actual creek plunge, making recent policy the most restrictive in almost a half century.

Again, in our depressingly overdressed world, being even briefly liberated from mandatory cover-up and the tyranny of cloth at places like mineral springs could work wonders. It easily allows for dramatic breakthroughs in positive body acceptance and physical liberation, enabling advancing one's spiritual journey to higher levels for feeling happier in one's skin.

between points. It detracted from any easier energy flow. But, given condensed bathhouse set-up and diverse visitorship, it was (again) possibly the best possible compromise and may yet remain so under new 'owners' should they ever miraculously have change of heart (writer's offering million-to-one odds)...or, under future appropriate new stewards that arrives like the cavalry to Fort Stewart, rescuing the place from fiery perdition of hide-bound morality and moneyed meddlers' bold seizure of the long-time simple, bohemian-friendly, egalitarian-minded retreat.

But tearing out tubs in bathhouse and repurposing building show that, all along, they had zero intention of ever altruistically serving the public in any spa capacity...that, instead, they held misguided long-range plans to overhaul realm to serving as an semi-exclusive compound for their own use, possibly with spa-indifferent visitors subsidizing the scene through simple lodging and workshops/retreat organizers who, again, could accept the restrictive scene.

...THEN Stewart Springs might regain and build further on its former global reputation as a modest rustic bohemian healing spa resort...one once again open to the public to serve the greater good in full resonance with  the greater Mount Shasta region's culture and the wild waters forever flowing through the realm.

by Stu Ward

August 1, 2016

December 2017 note: Eighteen months after penning this writer realized he had the wool pulled over his eyes. Had naively hoped new 'ownership' would make everything right once 12-year old manager Rowena P., lingering vestige of 34-year, profit-driven Foggy reign, was at last out of picture.

Didn't realize they were apparently on same page in many ways. They seemed to resonate with her vision of "Refining the Culture" by working to overhaul visitor base to build a more "respectable" clientele reflecting own buttoned-down, well-insulated lifestyles, while in their own case supporting place's doubling as far-flung outfit's headquarters...maybe, as some suspect, privatizing it outright in time for groups' own exclusive use.

In any event, they made it clear long before permanently closing spa service that they no longer wanted to deal with bohemian-minded and alternative-culture energies, which -- duh -- ALWAYS gravitate to alternative-healing, bohemian-minded spas like Stewart's had been for nearly a century and a half until they snatched it away from the public.

Rather than try to update article, writer let it stand ,with only a few changes...like clothing-optional ban that took effect three months after first posting. Consider it a testament to how easily one can get snookered if naively taking people's intentions at face value via their posted infomercial sizzle.

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turned onto the place years ago during repeat workshop retreats. They'd stayed at various mineral spring resorts in wider region for their periodic retreats, always looking for one to call home base.

Among other things, they're into Inca shamanism and providing support to Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and Q'ero Nation in Peru. Their Pneuma System "seeks to integrate spiritual, psychological, and physical aspects of the individual" and "centers on transpersonal experience as a powerful method leading to inner transformation." Aim: "...to deepen our experience of the Sacred, both within and without of ourselves and thus learn to live our life with increasingly deeper awareness and clarity." 

Sounds like a good fit. To further quote site:

"Inkarri is a Quechua word that means morning sun, a symbol of spiritual awakening at the dawn of a new era. The word Inkarri also alludes to an Incan myth, where the son of the Sun, an enlightened being, will come in the future to assist humanity and restore harmony on the planet. This correlates with other mythologies and prophesies within many cultures, such as the Tibetan culture, which makes reference to the Buddha Maitreya as the Buddha of the Future."

(On weird side note, for legal purposes Stewart Mineral Springs is now on record as Golden Eagle Resort. Last steward didn't legally register name Stewart Mineral Springs in time and someone else snagged it and has been holding name ransom ever since. Was easier re-naming place if only for legal purposes than pay extortionate fee to buy it back. Apparently the concern in the Bay Area began weirdly touting some operation there as Stewart Mineral Springs; hopefully few were mislead into thinking place had actually branched or changed locations -- as if it could.)

While living even more distant -- as far away as L.A., Mexico, even South America (and one thought former owner location in S.F. was far) -- new 'ownership' will no doubt over time work to prioritize projects and shape policies for management to fulfill that reflect evolving hopes and aspirations for place once they become better acquainted with its history and traditions.

into resonance with former glory as down-home, spiritually-grounded rustic healing retreat...one liberal-minded enough to permit modest measure of mindful nudity...one that the dedicated Stewart family manifested and ran for nearly 80 years, from 1876 to 1954, though not clothing-optional; and Goodpasture family ownership through 1970s and Foggy ownership's last 16 years, from 2000 through 2016, when happily it was. see history

her lingering involvement continued to shape and enforce new policies as directed by new 'ownership', almost entirely by remote, through November 2017].

On a sad note, husband and co-manager Ted passed away late October 2015, at age 65. He'd been diagnosed with late-stage liver disease somewhere around very beginning of tenure in 2006. He dedicated remaining years to evolving Springs infrastructure as approved or directed by Foggy, initiating many notable improvements and repairs visible throughout grounds. Firm believer in Spring water's healing properties, regular soakings very likely extended his life many years, before liver failure finally claimed him.

To former 'owner' John Foggy's everlasting credit, he saw the wisdom in keeping the rustic charm of place intact, thus keeping it unique among northwest's rural mineral springs resorts, delighting visitors with its quaint summer camp feeling...and was liberal-minded enough to allow clothing-optional in second half of 'ownership' (if perhaps only because it helped send business volume through the roof).That he sometimes let place's upkeep slide distressingly is now ancient history, forgiven especially since he plowed so much back in during final years.

Two indications: First thing 'owners' did was raise everyone's wages (albeit raising admission to cover). [...or thought they did; apparently it was only management positions, while workers were still sweating away at minimum wage.] And they committed to pouring every cent of profit during first two years back into place. Among other things, this enabled new manager Josh W. to get a decent heavy-duty work truck for place.

Whatever side of c/o issue visitors fall in on, all who revere place no doubt wish involved parties well with their new stewardship. 

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March 20, 2015

Plunge Deepened

With sporadic on-going work-trade efforts, creek coldplunge, new tarp liner installed, gaining needed depth - now up to four feet or so off stone steps in.

Just in time for spring equinox.

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March 8, 2015

New Clawfoot Tub

Bathtub room 7 next to sauna, offline for month or two, now back online with new clawfoot.

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March 1, 2015

Sauna Wood Refinished

During annual work session last Monday thru Thursday, caretaker Russell sanded off old finish of sauna's floor, benches, wall and ceiling and re-coated with linseed oil, made from flax seed. While oil coating is natural, it still makes for fumes that any chemically sensitive (like writer, who it made nauseous after while) might react to until it's finished outgassing.

Original coating, applied when new sauna built, used woefully inappropriate, toxic outdoor deck coating, which noxious outgassing left anyone at all sensitive gagging. Some were unable to use sauna for over month or two without getting headaches or becoming nauseous.

New finish makes wood bit darker, lending more womb-like atmosphere to sauna. Can't resist: new finish makes sauna more...Finnish.

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February 21, 2015

New cold plunge maintainer

Frequent visitor Mario of Lake Shastina has taken on chilly job of rebuilding Springs' cold plunge from moi. Plunge is distressed since big rainstorm created creek rampage that severely damaged it. Breached rock wall is once again repaired -- challenging six hour labor -- making it once again safe to dip in the creek. Mario wears wet suit to stay relatively warm in 43 degree waters.

Work-trader, he could always use help. Challenge now, as always, is to deepen creek floor by removing rock and gravel, slow process, as well as heighten rock wall, to try to bring plunge back to at least waist depth, rather than current knee depth that can make easy plunging a bit iffy.

The deal for workers: one free bath for every earnest hour of work. See operations manager Josh if interested.

Writer had to step down after over-ambitious rock moving resulted in hernia. started first, recent cold plunge pool in 1999 and built it up and maintained it 14 years as labor of love.

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December 17, 2014

Work Traders Needed to Repair Cold Plunge

Heavy rains and resulting flooding of creek last week threatened to destroy the cold-plunge dam. Water level was almost up to base of angel on the island. While dam managed to hold, it did wash away top layer of rocks that covered now exposed brown and blue tarps and, worse, filled up so much of plunge with rocks and gravel depth is under knee height, making immersing a bit more laborious.

Once writer's longtime bailiwick, health issues no longer permit lifting heavy rocks. New work traders with strong backs -- and maybe wetsuits, including booties and gloves, for working in 46 degree water -- are needed to repair plunge to former depth.

Deal: one free bath/two saunas for every hour of work. if you know of someone that might be, spread the word. Contact Josh for details.

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Sept. 21, 2014

Weed Fire Aid

The Springs, along with other local motels, helped ease a tragic situation created by the nearby Weed's fire disaster by comping all its unrented accommodations for Weed's suddenly homeless.

The office desk accepted donations to help one single mom of four who lost her home in the hard-hit Angel Valley neighborhood on north side of town.

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April, 2013

Mendera, indefatigable builder, crosses over

Mendera, who dedicated last two years of his life making substantial improvements to the Springs he loved, left us April 2nd, 2013. Work was inspired by his belief region was possibly the site of original Garden of Eden.

Among his many accomplishments, usually done along with dedicated Mexican work crew led by foreman Jesus, were re-building car bridge, building new twin bathhouse showers, replacing bathhouse floor, enlarging conference hall deck, replacing A-frame upper deck, zenning out landscape all around bathhouse, building new foot bridge across creek below conference hall...

His last -- and in some ways greatest -- service was saving the day when late 2012 deluge's aftermath (see below), changed creek flow and threatened bathhouse and stairway. He directed earth-moving equipment to shore up banks plus had placed huge foundation boulders for new cold plunge.

Such ceaseless work efforts built up improvement momentum that continues apace with current groundskeepers.

His presence is missed.

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