Looking up Caliente Rio at the Hot Springs

Ojo Caliente is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Taos County, New Mexico, United States, along the Rio Ojo Caliente.

Description

Ojo Caliente lies along

U.S. Route 285 U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. ...

near the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

between Española and

Taos Taos or TAOS may refer to: Places * Taos County, New Mexico, United States ** Taos, New Mexico, a city, the county seat of Taos County, New Mexico *** Taos art colony, an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico ** Taos Pueblo, a Native American ...

, approximately north of Santa Fe, the state capital. The community consist mainly of small farms irrigated by

acequia An acequia () or (, also known as síquia , all from ) is a community-operated watercourse used in Spain and former Spanish colonies in the Americas for irrigation. Acequias are found in parts of Spain, the Andes, northern Mexico, and what i ...

s fed by water from the Rio Ojo Caliente. The community, known for its Ojo Caliente Hot Springs, is one of the oldest health resorts in North America.

Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo people, Pueblo Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of San ...

tradition holds that its pools provided access to the underworld. Frank Mauro purchased the springs in 1932, and it remained a family business for three generations. The resort's buildings are on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

./ The nearby Ojo Caliente Hot Springs Round Barn, built in 1924, is also listed on the National Register.

References

Unincorporated communities in Taos County, New Mexico Unincorporated communities in New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub