ameobic encephalitis at Deep Creek?

The story related by Laughing Bear of an amobic encephalitis death at Deep Creek is incorrect. In 1976 a family visited hot springs all over the western United States; their daughter contracted ameobic encephalitis at one of the many hot springs they soaked in. Deep Creek Hot Springs was one of the locations the family visited. The girl surivived the disease.

It was never determined where the ameobic encephalitis was actually contracted, but the histeria caused some hot springs to be shut down. Almost 20 years later, it is said that there are still signs at some hot springs warning of the deadly danger.

The disease organism lives in damp earth anywhere, such as the swamp above the rocks at DCHS. The pathogen could be dislodged by water flowing over the damp earth, then washed into one of the hot pools where the ameoba would invade the victim's body through the nose. There have been no reported cases of ameobic encephalitis contracted at Deep Creek Hot Springs.