Believed to be sent by supernatural beings dwelling in the hot world below, the waters were said to bestow powers of endurance upon those who drank them.
Locals say one Seattle doctor comes to soak in the hotel's mineral pools each year.
Crippled by arthritis, he always arrives in a wheelchair, they report, and he always leaves on foot. Or so the story goes. I was willing to believe anything the first time I slipped into the hotel's mineral pools, with waters piped in from those supernatural springs. The hot, soft water enveloped me like a sigh. I've always been a sinker, but in this velvety medium of sulfur, salts and other minerals, I floated like a leaf, eyes closed, mmmmmmm-ing to my weightless self.