BOISE COUNTY -- Hot spring pools in Rocky Canyon, between Crouch and Silver Creek, have become popular over the years, but now the U.S. Forest Service says they need to go.
That has many asking why and some taking action to keep them the way they are.
There are about a dozen tubs that were built off of Rocky Canyon. They were built illegally. The man who built them has already been punished. But now that they're going to be torn down the public feels like they're the ones paying the price.
"The words gorgeous and beautiful come to mind," said Brandt Seefeldt.
If you drive through Rocky Canyon you might miss them. Cascading pools that line the side of this mountain. At the top it is a hot 107 degrees and gradually they cool.
These pools were built without a permit by one man.
"He was very cooperative. He was a well intentioned individual. But what he did was a violation of the U.S. Forest Service," said John Erickson, District Ranger.
That man paid a fine and did community service as punishment.
Now a year after they were built, the Forest Service says the cement tubs need to be destroyed.
"People don't realize it's illegal to construct those structures that he built there," said Erickson.
Erickson is not the only who feels the tubs need to go. A spokesman for the Shoshone-Paiute Indian tribe says the hot springs are sacred, and are being misused with alcohol, drugs and sex.
"Hot springs are a place where people go for healing and prayer, ceremonies," said Ted Howard, Shoshone-Paiute cultural resource director.
Many we spoke with agree the hot springs are sacred, but they think the tubs should be kept the way they are. They commend the man who built them.
"He had to pay community service as if this wasn't the biggest community service this guy could have done. They guy should have some kind of monument and to be recognized down here," said Toby Simpson.
"When you heard these pools maybe leaving maybe gone what did you think about that?" asked NewsChannel 7.
"It almost made me cry," said Brandt Seefeldt.
Now Brandt Seefeldt and Mary Hildreth are gathering support to keep the pools intact. They say the public should have a say on what happens to them.
"The conversation should be now. And the ideas to improve something that already exists is -- A, more cost effective, and B, more logical than ripping it down and maybe starting a new," said Seefeldt.
"What people are essentially asking me to do is ignore management of the forest and meeting our regulations," said Erickson.
After the tubs are destroyed, the Forest Service says that might be the time to have that discussion on what can be done to develop this area.
The tubs will be destroyed in the near future.
Those who want the tubs to stay are trying to get legal help.
