Pagosa Springs - Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 37° 13.882 W 107° 06.424
13S E 313079 N 4122619
This Colorado Historical Marker is located in a turnout on the northwest side of US Highway 160 on the western edge of Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
Waymark Code: WMGCK8
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 02/14/2013
Views: 4
Pagosa Springs
[Photograph of Steaming Hot Springs and Town]
Pagosa Springs, 1890s
Colorado Historical Society
[Drawing of Geothermal Process]
Hot springs are created when heated underground water rises back to the surface through a fault. The hot water also can be tapped by digging wells.Courtesy Larry Scott, Colorado Geological Survey
[Photo of Loggers]
Lumber companies and sawmills proliferated around the Pagosa Springs area in the 1890s. When the resource was depleted, related industries also disappeared.
Colorado Historical Society
Capt. John Macomb’s 1859 wanderings in the San Juan Mountains brought him to one of the sacred Ute places-—Pagosa, translated today as “healing waters.” His reverent descriptions of the hot springs attracted a trickle of white visitors whose presence the Utes tolerated in summertime but prohibited in winter, when the tribe gathered here. The United States acquired the land from the Utes via the 1873 Brunôt Treaty, and settlers soon came to Pagosa Springs-—first farmers, ranchers, and miners, then loggers beginning in the 1890s. But the springs themselves remained the town’s foundation. The first public bathhouse, built in 1881, was a godsend to hardworking frontier folk; pleasure seekers and convalescents have been drawn here ever since, soothing body and spirit in these ancient healing waters.
[Drawing of Fort Lewis]
In 1878 an army post was established at Pagosa Springs and named in honor of Lt. Col. W. H. Lewis, an officer who had been killed by Cheyennes the previous summer in Kansas. The fort occupied a site along the north side of the San Juan River until 1882, when it relocated north of Durango.
Colorado Historical Society
Geothermal Energy
Early settlers in Pagosa Springs took full advantage of the comforts afforded by the mineral waters. Many built special bathing rooms attached to their homes, the better to soak in privacy; others (beginning in the 1900s) tapped the 153-degree waters as a source of winter heat, piping them in directly via rudimentary plumbing systems. This practice gained widespread attention in the 1970s, when nationwide oil shortages raised the demand for cheap, renewable energy. Local officials moved quickly to harness the resource, launching a $1 million system in 1982 to heat downtown buildings and aid with sidewalk snow removal. The ground-breaking project demonstrated the great energy potential of Colorado’s natural hot springs, which according to one estimate could heat up to 100,000 homes each winter.
[Photograph of Drilling and Trucks]
Digging a new well, Pagosa Springs, 1970s. The truck on the right supplies pipe to the drill on the left to continue digging down until striking a hot spring. Once a well has been dug, it is capped or connected to a geothermal system.
Courtesy Colorado Geological Survey