Cove & Forest Cove Warm Springs Pool
Posted By Heather on September 24, 2008
Like most adventures, Cove was an accidental find. Our original camping plan for Minam State Park was abandoned becuase the canyon is dark and chilly by late September. Standing in the La Grande Safeway parking lot, our rendezvous point, we were searching for a new plan. Roger had a hot springs guide book and had been out to Cove on his way back from checking out Minam State Park. In Cove, he’d found a warm spring pool, with a bathhouse, and picnic facilities. The owner was willing to let us camp there. It sounded sketchy to me, but it was not. It was a great find.
Cove is not bright lights big city travel, nor is it wilderness solitude. It’s camping in a town, in city limits, but honestly, I’ve camped in some of our state campgrounds that had bigger populations, with more noise, less wildlife, and those state campground have that…. outhouse smell. Cove is none of that. It’s Pastoral Americana, quiet, and on the edge of Eagle Cap Wilderness. The town is small enough that in a nice couple hour walk, you can see all the sites. It’s wonderful place to visit, if you’re adept at noticing the details that make small towns vibrant places.
According to the signs, Cove Oregon has a population of 680. It’s an old town that was settled by people wandering off the Oregon Trail, who were impressed enough with the sweeping valley views, protection from the wind, and richness of the soil.
There is a panoramic view of the entire La Grande Valley from the Cove Cemetery. The headstones in the cemetery clearly show many people, young and old that would have walked the Oregon Trail. They tell a story of bad years. One family in the upper right hand corner, lost 5 children in 7 years. Three of those children in died within a month. Clearly an illness. The other two it’s hard to say, except that the untold story of dates on headstones grabs at my heart. And the woman who was likely mother to all those children, lived to her eighties and would have seen the headlines of World War I and the first automobiles.
Here’s the sweeping view from cemetery ridge above Cove
(For many more photos of the cemetery, visit the Araxa studio link at the bottom of the page)
The architecture in Cove is fantastic snapshot of Americana. Walking through the neighborhoods, there are glimpses of Victorian Architecture, Greek Revival, Art Deco, Craftsman, and more. All these genre’s of American architecture are on a small town scale that is a short walk. It’s wonderful enough to walk it a few times a day to see the changing light and have the chance to visit with people.
Cove Union Highway
On the main highway from Union is the art deco library, and the Post Office which has some wonderful decorative brickwork.
Just a block off the highway on the southside of town is you’ll see the flying buttresses on Ascension Chapel (built 1876) which are unique in all of the Northwest architecture.
The streets are lined with giant maple trees.
Since the town pre-dates automobiles, nearly every lot has pasture and a barn. This barn is a block from the Ascension church and features a unique architectural detail on the haymow “window” opening.
Front porches are the norm, and they are well used spaces.
We even found a mailbox with a great personality.
The small pastures in town have goats, horses and cows, which are used to being petted through the fences and fed the apples and fruit that laying on the the ground. The little town is overflowing with orchard fruit- plums, apples, pears, cherries fill nearly every yard. They are big trees and old trees. The amount of fruit spoiling on the ground speaks to the changing times, when it’s more convenient to buy food at the store, then harvest and preserve a winter’s worth of food.
I do realize that in three trips, we can’t really say we know Cove, only that it’s become familiar to us. Outside of Bob at the warm spring pool, I doubt anyone would recognize us. We travel as a group and cause a bit of gypsy anxiety in small town where everyone generally knows everyone. Still, folks are welcoming and friendly. When we say we’re staying at the pool, it’s both a nod of acceptance and resignation.
Clearly, the pool brings all sorts to this town, and folks have had the benefits of the pool and the downside of the pool. When we say we’re staying at the pool, the look is indecipherable whether that’s good or more like “oh, one of those.” I can imagine the pool which is advertised on the internet, in hot springs books, and by word of mouth, has brought all types of people to this small town.
Forest Cove Warm Springs Pool
This is warm spring, not a hot spring. It bubbles up out rocks at about 87 degrees and 110 gallons/ minute. The pool is sized so that no water recirculates, and the spring water bubbling up is enough fresh clean water supply to meet health codes. No chemicals are added.
The warm spring was captured in the swimming pool about 85 years ago. Before that, it seems locals and Native Americans excavated out the creekside rocks to let a small pools fill with the warm water. So far, I’ve not been able to find out anymore about the early white man or pre white-man use of the area, although it’s got to be rich.
The main house, bath house, picnic shelter, orchards, and barn all speak of the 20’s and thirties. They are simple buildings, and meant to be gathering places of people. This is not anything like the nearby fancy Hot Lake Hotel, which catered to the upper class. This place speaks of summer socials, church picnics, and community.
Bob who runs the pool is a quiet man. He’s a man of faith and you’ll find a few Christian magazines around pool the pool area. He’s also a cancer survivor. For him, owning the pool is not about getting rich, it’s definitely about giving back, and carrying onward. He’s a firm believer in the healing property of spring, and of regular exercise and good diet.
From what I understand, the pool had been closed for a few years and was essentially a private establishment before Bob bought and opened it to the public again. He’s been working hard and steadily at the never ending maintenance and fixing it up.
He’s renovated the picnic area bathrooms, he’s added a hot water heater, so that the shower in the mens room is hot, not just the tepid warm spring water. Next year, he’ll extend the new hot water line to the women’s bath and install a hot shower there as well. And I can’t think of year, where Bob didn’t have a paintbrush in hand. The place is big enough, I’m sure that just about the time he finishes with all the painting, the pool deck needs it again and he’ll get it done.
It’s hard to know whether the spring water itself, or his mission to share it are what keep him going. Either way, it feels good to swim in the waters and be around someone so dedicated to living life.
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More about
Cove Oregon
http://www.coveoregon.org/aboutcove.shtml
Forest Cove Warm Springs Pool, Cove, Oregon
http://www.covepool.com/about/
Araxa Studio photos of Cove & Geezerfest08
http://www.araxastudios.com/temp/Geezerfest08/
I wanted to thank you for the wonderful memories you brought back to me with your post. Looks like it has been up for almost a year, but I just came across it. I grew up in Cove from about age 5 to 14, and you really captured the feel of the town and the pool. Almost every year I had a summer pass to the pool and it was a large part of my child hood, its where I learned to swim, met my first girlfriend, and spent a lot of time with friends and family. I am now in the Navy as a Rescue Swimmer and looking back I probably wouldn’t be where I am today if not for Bob and his pool. Reading your post has really brought back some really great memories of my child hood, I am now 34 and have not thought those years in a long time. So again thank you for taking the time to get a feel for a small town and its pool that had meant so much to me as a young man.
Thank you,
Shad
The pool was NOT closed to the public – my parents ran it as Cove Warm Springs from 1971 until the time of sale to Bob. It was open 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, instead of the 4 hours a day a few times per week that it is open now. It was the heart and soul of the community when I was growing up. I worked there for 9 years during my teen and college growing up days, and can attest that it was never rundown and always very clean and well-maintained.
Sharon-
Sorry about the incorrect history on the hours of operation. Just wrote up what I could glean from people on the street in Cove.
I have no doubt that facility has always been well maintained. Old buildings with all that water bubbling up would never survive if they weren’t constantly maintained. It takes a lot of work to keep it going and it’s wonderful you got to work there for so many years. I love the charm that so many generations have preserved there.
It remains a great place to visit.
Thank you for this. I learned to swim in that pool in the 1950s. I was taught by the granddaughter of the man who built the pool. It has become a pilgrimage site for me even though I no longer live in the area.