Some corrections:
From my personal experience Mrs. Bowen charged $1.00 per person from at least 1970 (probably before that) to 1972 when she moved to Apple Valley.
In spring 1970 clothing optional had long been the custom with most hot springers going nude. One of the long time hot springers, a distinguished astronomer at Mt. Wilson Observatory, started skinny dippping at DCHS with friends beginning in 1953.
In May 1970, there was a crowded campground atmosphere around the springs with a commune of almost 60 persons camped up in the grassy area above the pools. One morning late May or early June swarms of police, deputies and rangers hit the springs from upstream, downstream and from both sides. They marched all of the communers out, daisy-chained, one to another by plastic tie wraps.
The Wares were interested in getting rich any way they could. I would have a difficult time believing anything they said.
Ware advertised in the LA Free Press, commonly called "the Freep," one of the largest circulation underground newspapers in the nation.
These are my own observations, not passed on DCHS legends.