S.F. NEWHARD. – At the southern end of the beautiful Grande Ronde valley, on the line of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, and at the foot of a high, bald hill, is situated Hot Lake, – or White Sulphur Lake. This is a circular body of water of about two and a half acres, with an average depth of three feet, and is fed by two boiling springs, which appear near together at the southern edge where the water is deepest. These springs are in shape of a basin twenty feet across and ten feet deep; and the water coming up perfectly clear form the bottom is the best agent that has been found for allaying pain and curing all the ills that the human family is heir to. In one of these springs the temperature reaches an average of from one hundred and seventy-five to one hundred and eighty degrees. Chemical analyses show it to contain free sulphureted hydrogen gas, carbonate and sulphate of calcium, sulphate of soda, sulphate of potash, alumina and silica, together with organic matter. This lake is declared by knowing ones to equal the famed hot springs of Arkansas, and has already effected relief or cures in many classes of disease.
Samuel F. Newhard was born in Pennsylvania in 1830. His parents emigrated to Ohio in 1837, where he received a common-school education and worked on his father’s farm until 1852, when he crossed the plains to California, and in that sunny state engaged in mining and farming for twelve years. The superior attractions of Union county, however, drew him to its scenes, where he located the land upon which is situated the lake above-described, and is still proprietor of this remarkable water. He has erected a small invalids’ hotel, with faculties for bathing and hygienic appurtenances.
Mr. Newhard is also engaged in stock-raising, and maintains a vineyard and fruit farm in California.
