Mike's Southwest Travels: Dripping Springs 1

Main Index

Dripping Springs First Trip
August 4, 2005

 

I've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Given that I didn't actually get any pictures of the springs on this trip, we'll see how many words it take to describe them instead.

Excerpted from: http://www.rozylowicz.com/retirement/drippingsprings/dripping.html

Dripping Springs Resort was originally called "Van Patten's Mountain Camp. " It had approximately 16 rooms, a large dining room and a concert hall. It was very popular around the turn of the century and many famous people, including Pat Garret and Pancho Villa, have stayed there. Van Patten was married to a local Piro Indian woman and a number of Indians lived and worked at the resort. The Indians hand-carried water from the spring to the rooms in "ollas" attached to long wooden poles and, from time to time, held dances for the amusement of the guests.

In 1917 Van Patten went bankrupt and Dripping Springs was sold to Dr. Nathan Boyd who homesteaded on a parcel of land adjacent to the resort. Boyd was a physician in San Francisco who later married the daughter of a wealthy Australian engineer. Boyd joined his in-laws' business and became involved in large engineering projects all over the world. He and his wife came to Las Cruces to promote, design and build a dam on the Rio Grande whose floods often devastated the countryside. Local farmers whose lands would have been inundated by the lake behind the dam stopped the dam. Ironically, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, creating the state's largest man-made lake, Elephant Butte Reservoir, eventually built a dam farther north. By the time Boyd had acquired Van Patten's resort, his wife had contracted tuberculosis. Deciding to remain in Las Cruces, Boyd converted Dripping Springs into a sanitarium. New structures were built in different parts of the canyon to provide housing and care for the patients.

The Boyd family eventually sold the property to another physician, a Dr. Sexton of Las Cruces, who continued to operate it as a sanatorium. As late as 1946 the resort was still in relatively good shape and a group of local citizens attempted to raise $4,000 to purchase it for historic preservation. Unfortunately, their effort failed and unknown persons scavenged the resort for building materials.

Today, the ruins of Dripping Springs Resort lie scattered along the canyon, preserving the memory of Col. Van Patten, the doctors Boyd and Sexton, and the many famous and not so famous who visited there.

 

Err... Unfortunately, time and weather concerns kept me from actually visiting said ruined resort and the famous dripping spring.  It's good to know what I missed though.  At least I got some great views of the Organ Mountains and the Mesilla Valley.

   

"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign."  They range from, respectively, friendly warnings, "You are here," to overly preachy.

 

Here's a sacred grove of trees used for pagan rituals and human sacrifices.  There was a bunny rabbit hanging out here, but Mr. Bunny hopped off before I could snap his picture.  So much for wildlife photography.

    

Maybe I should stick with still-life shots.  Here's a few interesting rock structures.

 

Ah, a tranquil mountain meadow, err... filled with cactuses.  What more could a person want?  Yeah, okay.  There's no pictures of the damn dripping spring.  I'll get them next time.