Dripping Springs Ranch, NM

Wednesday, Oct 15

Today we decided to take a hike.  We learned that Dripping Springs Resort was actually a national monument in the Organ Mountains.  It was a cool morning but was supposed to warm to the mid 70's so I layered.

These are the Organ Mountains where we are headed.  Below is what we learned about the Dripping Springs Resort.

Dripping Springs Resort, originally called "Van Patten's Mountain Camp" was built by Colonel Eugene Van Patten in the 1870s. The resort had 16 rooms, a dining room and ballroom, and located at the foot of a precipitous mountain face. Colonel Van Patten hosted famous Southwestern personalities such as Pancho Villa, who became legendary in Mexico’s early 20^th century revolution, and Pat Garrett, who shot Billy the Kid at New Mexico’s Fort Sumner. 

In 1917, Van Patten went bankrupt and Drippings Springs was sold to Nathan Boyd, who homesteaded on a parcel of land adjacent to the Resort.  Boyd converted Dripping Springs into a sanatorium.  The Boyd family eventually sold the property to Dr. Sexton, a Las Cruces physician, who continued to operate it as a sanatorium.  Today, the ruins of Dripping Springs Resort lie scattered along the canyon, preserving the memory of Colonel Van Patten, the doctors Boyd and Sexton.

There is a cave in the closer out cropping of rocks.  Here is the story we learned about that cave.
La Cueva rock shelter is an archeological site located at the foot of the Organ Mountains outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. The shelter was occupied from almost 5,000 BC through the historic period that followed the arrival of the Europeans. In the mid-1970s, approximately 100,000 artifacts were recovered here by the University of Texas at El Paso. During the 18th and 19th Centuries, the rock shelter was probably known to the roving bands of Apaches who frequented the area. Then, in the 1860s, the cave was reportedly home to one of the more eccentric figures of New Mexico's history, Giovanni Maria Agotini, known to local folks as "El Ermitano," the Hermit.

 Look at these large boulders that must have had to roll a long ways.

 As we started walking the uphill trail, we were awed by the rugged formations.

As we increased our elevation, Tic was able to zoom in on this outcropping from a different angle.

These rocks look like they were just pushed up out of the ground.

The rock formations were magnificent all along the hiking trail. We just kept taking pictures.

The formations are so unique.  

If I remember correctly, this was housing for the Indians that lived & worked on the property.
It was the first building we came to and I thought we were finally there.  But no, it was another 1/2 mile.

Finally we came to this sign.  Should not be much further now.  We chose to go to Boyd Sanatorium first.

This is what is remaining of the Sanatorium.

This area is so far back into the rugged mountain range it was amazing to us that people actually came here.  They were probably all very wealthy.

This was the spring.  As you can tell it was barely running.  It was actually "dripping".

The picture above this one was a zoomed in shot of the water dripping.  Look how rugged the mountain is right here.

Hopefully you can see the picture well enough to see how large this resort and the position at the foot of the mountain.
The following pictures show the ruins as they are now.

Look again at how close the building is to the mountain.  It is hard for me to imagine that in the 1870's people wanted to take a 17 mile buckboard ride to get to this location.

On our downhill hike back, we could see Las Cruces.  It was a beautiful day and very interesting hike.  We were glad we went.