(CLICK image to find out more, the site will open a new tab. You will be leaving our site. PLEASE RETURN for more of our information) In the mid 1930’s the Veterans Administration sent nine veterans to Soap Lake to test the healing attributes of the lake in cases of Buergers disease, which affects the extremities of the body due to poor circulation. One of these veterans was Earl McKay. Ultimately the federal government built McKay hospital in his name in 1938. The hospital was used for many years to research Buergers disease and the curative properties of the healing waters and its black creamy mud.