Zamboni Hot Springs, located in Long Valley just south of Constantia and the place has been widely known as Great Basin Pottery. In the 1970s numerous changes were taking place and not just in Lassen County but the nation as a whole. Of course, there was an element in the youth that promoted a back to nature movement. After all what could more natural than soaking au natural in a hot spring. These young folks studied geography/geology and had penchant to locate obscure springs such as Zamboni. The timing was an exquisite as Zamboni had all the right elements–the property was more or less vacant, easily accessible, yet hidden from view and equally important, it has just right temperature, as so many of the hot springs were too hot. Once discovered, it became a popular gathering spot, especially with students from Lassen Community College.
The college’s newspaper, The Cougar first carried a story about the springs. The paper ran a brief follow up story with a drawing a very pregnant woman. The caption stated, “It’s the Water.” In addition, the paper wrote, “If you can remember the closing of Doyle [Zamboni] hot springs.
“As a follow-up, we wish to run an account of an incident told to this reporter by a store-keeper in Doyle.
“It seems that the Army ran tests on the water in the hot springs and discovered that a sperm cell could live in the water for a period of four hours.
“When asked to comment, spokesman for the Army could not answer.
“As a public service, we have a picture above a very unhappy visitor to the Doyle hot springs, with her Sad tale.”
Hi Tim,
I was the editor of the Cougar in 72-73 though I couldn’t possibly give the exact dates as it’s been a long time…I seem to recall writing an article about the Wendel Hot Springs and not Zamboni because it was a lot closer but still prone to the debauchery many of us youth seemed to love. Thanks for the memory. I also believe the drawing was done by Mark Smith another purveyor of good times.