Early Settlers' History of the Pagosa Hot Springs

During July of 1859, Captain John N. Macomb led a group of United States of America Topographical Engineers through the area and is probably the first white American to officially see and accurately describe the hot spring. These accounts attracted a trickle of white visitors whose presence the Utes tolerated in summertime but prohibited in winter, when the tribe gathered here. Macomb is quoted as saying: “There is scarcely a more beautiful place on the face of the earth.”
    
In 1873, the United States acquired the land from the Utes in the 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.

In 1875, Major Foote made claim to the parcel of land and hot springs. In 1876, Dr. Frank Keebles made claim to the same parcel of land. Settlement was reached in favor of Major Foote. In 1876, Welch Nossaman settled in Pagosa only to be chased away by the Indians, and returned the next spring.

On May 22, 1877, an Executive Order of the President of the United States of America designated one square mile with the hot springs as the center of the square mile as a United States of America town site. It was platted in 1883 and in 1885 building lots were appraised and patents were sold to individuals under certificates numbered 1 to 733.

In 1881 Thomas Blair erected Pagosa’s first public bathhouse on the San Juan River bank near the Great Pagosa Hot Spring. A ditch carried water from the spring to the bathhouse. The bathhouse was a godsend to hardworking frontier folk, and pleasure seekers and convalescents have been drawn here ever since to soothe body and spirit in the ancient healing waters.