Montezuma is an unincorporated community in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. It is five miles northwest of the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico, at the mouth of Gallinas Canyon. During the 2020 census, Montezuma had a population of 503. Of those, 363 were under the age of 20.
The area has long been known for its natural hot springs, the Montezuma Hot Springs, and was called "Los Ojos Calientes" and "Las Vegas Hot Springs" until the late 19th century.Bejnar, W., and Bejnar, K. C. (1979) "Structural geology related to the Montezuma Hot Springs, Montezuma, New Mexico" New Mexico Geology 2(2): pp. 21–24The Montezuma (New Mexico) Story, F. Stanley, 1963 It was also known for its ice ponds, which supplied ice used across the country before mechanical refrigeration became available.
Montezuma has been home to several hotels, including a palatial health resort known as the Montezuma Hotel, one of the few Harvey House hotels still in use, though no longer as a hotel, in New Mexico. Today, Montezuma consists of ranches and farms, a post office, water facilities, and the United World College-USA. The ZIP Code for Montezuma is 87731.
History
Pre-Contact Indigenous Era Native people valued the hot springs and used them therapeutically."The Las Vegas Hot Springs," Clarence Pullen, Harpers Weekly, June 28, 1890, p. 499 The hot springs were centrally located within the territory of the Pueblo peoples, who lived in the area from time immemorial. Pecos Pueblo, one of the largest and most fortified Pueblos, and an important trading center, was just 30 miles to the west.
Apache people arrived in the area by the mid-1400s. The area that is now Montezuma is within the homeland of the Jicarilla Apache, specifically the Llanero Moiety, traditionally Plains bison hunters. The Jicarilla Apache lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, sharing the area that was home to Pueblo people. Jicarilla Apache were strong trading partners with Pueblo people in Pecos, Taos and Picuris Pueblos, and would visit the pueblos to trade. Tipi rings, perhaps left by Jicarilla Apache, have been found in the Trout Springs area, just up the Gallinas Canyon from Montezuma.
It is said that the springs were a sacred spot for Native people, and that people from different tribes met there peacefully, held ceremonies, and enjoyed the healing waters of the hot springs.
Spanish Era In 1541 Spanish conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's expedition passed through the area searching for gold, on its way to Cicuye Pueblo, later called Pecos, 30 miles to the west. By 1610, Spain had claimed the region and established a capital in Santa Fe.
Due to Spanish demands on Native land and labor, the introduction of slavery, the suppression of Pueblo religion, as well as famine, pestilence and disease, Pueblo resistance to the Spanish occupation grew. Apache people assisted by welcoming and protecting Puebloan fugitives, and assisting Puebloan rebels. Specifically, area Apache and Pecos people united against the brutal occupation by Juan de Onate from 1598 to 1606.
The Jicarilla Apache and Pecos Pueblo people continued as strong trading partners and allies through the mid-1600s, and joined in resistance when the Spanish raided the Apache people to enslave them. Apache people often wintered at Pecos Pueblo, and joined with the Pecos people in hunting in the area.
Following years of abuse, Pueblo, Apache and other Native people united and drove the Spanish colonizers from the region during the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. One of the leaders of the revolt, Felipe de Ye, was from nearby Pecos Pueblo. When the Spanish returned in 1692, the people of Pecos Pueblo fled to the mountains and were sheltered by their Apache allies, leaving Pecos Pueblo abandoned for a time.
During the early 1700s, the Jicarilla Apache followed a bi-seasonal mobility pattern, living on the plains during the warmer months and returning to the eastern foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains during the winter. By 1718 they were experiencing attacks from Comanche who had been pushed into the region, and in 1723 some of the Jicarilla agreed to be baptized and live as Spanish subjects at a mission. Unwilling to build a mission for the Jicarilla, Spain sent them to a mission located in present-day Ranchos de Taos.
Comanche attacks also took their toll on Pecos Pueblo and by the 1760s the population of Pecos Pueblo was just over 500 people. Some Jicarilla Apache continued to move between the plains and the eastern foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
Mexican Era Claimed by Spain since the 16th Century, New Mexico became part of Mexico in 1821. That same year, the Santa Fe Trail opened, crossing the Gallinas River five miles south of present-day Montezuma.
In 1823, wealthy sheepherder Don Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca was granted 500,000 acres of land for himself and his 17 sons including the present-day Montezuma Hot Springs. He built two large adobe homes four miles south of the hot springs, along the Gallinas River, and grazed large herds of livestock. Within a few years, raids by Comanches caused most of the Cabeza de Baca family to abandon the land.
In 1835, a group of Mexican colonists from San Miguel del Vado petitioned for a land grant of approximately the same area as the Cabeza de Baca grant, and established Las Vegas, New Mexico, five miles south of the hot springs. They engaged in summer farming for two years, and spent their first winter in Las Vegas in 1837. The next year, the last 17 surviving Pecos Pueblo people left their home, moving west to join the Jemez people.
In the following years, a few Mexican families farmed corn and oats in the Montezuma area.
The Las Vegas colonists were well-positioned to engage in trade with Santa Fe Trail travelers, and in 1840, they established a second community, Plaza de Arriba known as upper town or San Antonio, three miles to the north, closer to the hot springs. Brothers Julian and Antonio Donaldson petitioned the local alcalde, or government official in Las Vegas, for the site of the Montezuma Hot Springs, and received a grant of the property in 1841. They built a bathhouse there. The same year, the Jicarilla Apache officially lost most of their homeland, as the Mexican government granted 1.7 million acres to Charles Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda. The Jicarilla continued to live in the mountains and fight for their homeland, existing as a nomadic enclave within a settled zone.
Early U.S. era In 1846, the U.S. Army entered and claimed New Mexico as a territory of the United States, starting the Mexican-American War which culminated in the area becoming officially part of the United States in 1848 through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. From that time, the Donaldson brothers' small bathhouse at the Montezuma hot springs, accessible for a fee, was five miles from a national road connecting the established United States to its new southwest territories, booming with commercial freight, stagecoach travel and military freight to supply southwestern forts, and traffic on the trail increased exponentially. The army, seeking the springs' waters, built a hospital across the Gallinas River from the Montezuma hot springs in 1846. The hospital was a long one-story adobe building with a veranda across the front supported by natural log posts. The Donaldson brothers, still operating the hot springs, built a six-room log bathhouse there.
The U.S. government sought to remove nomadic native people from settled areas. It increased military presence along the Santa Fe Trail, and established Fort Union 33 miles northeast of the Montezuma Hot Springs in 1851. Its purpose was to protect travelers on the Santa Fe Trail from Native people.
In 1856 the U.S. Marshal seized the Montezuma Hot Springs property from the Donaldson brothers for debts, and sold it. Soon, the U.S. Army assumed management of the Montezuma Hot Springs, in conjunction with Fort Union. The hot springs were believed to cure syphilis and other ailments that plagued the soldiers. During the Civil War, soldiers at Fort Union fought the Confederacy at the Battle of Glorieta, and then continued the U.S. campaign against Native people in the area, relocating them onto reservations.
After the Civil War, the Montezuma Hot Springs property changed hands several times. The adobe military hospital was converted into a hotel in 1862. In 1864 the owner, O.H. Woodworth, advertised the wonderful effect of these springs in curing "Syphilitic and kindred diseases, Scrofula, Cutaneous diseases, Rheumatism, etc." The bathhouse was managed by Dr. and Mrs. S.B. Davis, and then W.S. Moore bought the hot springs and ran an establishment called The Adobe Hotel, where Jesse James and Billy the Kid spent three days as guests in July 1879.
That same month, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad arrived in nearby Las Vegas, New Mexico. With the arrival of the railroad, the focus of the soldiers at Fort Union was no longer on protecting the Santa Fe Trail and was solely on removing Native people from the area and forcing them onto reservations. The Jicarilla Apache were the last tribe removed from the area, in 1888. A small group of Jicarilla Apache continued to live at El Cielo Mountain, up the canyon from Montezuma, near El Porvenir. When they once came down into Gallinas Canyon, a mounted troop from Fort Union captured them and killed many. The survivors were taken to the reservation.
Railroad era The arrival of the railroad in New Mexico Territory in 1879 began a new era. The Las Vegas Hot Springs Company, controlled by the railroad, purchased the Montezuma hot springs property on August 1, 1879, and built a two-story stone bathhouse there for $17,000. In February 1880, the company opened a three-story stone hotel with 75 rooms available for $4 per night. The sandstone structure, built by local contractor F.C. Martsolf, had a projecting central tower and second floor balustraded veranda, reading rooms, parlors and a large dining hall. It was originally called the Hot Springs Hotel."The Montezuma Hotel at Las Vegas Hot Springs, New Mexico, Louise Harris Ivers, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 1974 Rooms in this hotel rented for $2 or $3 per day.
In 1881 a fire destroyed the bathhouse. The company built a new one for $20,000 which could accommodate 500 customers daily. Also in 1881 a telephone line connected the hotel to Las Vegas, New Mexico, then a boomtown.
In 1882 Agua Pura, a company associated with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, built a dam on the Gallinas River, just above the Montezuma Hot Springs, to create a small reservoir allowing water to be piped into homes and to fire hydrants in Las Vegas. The reservoir was beneath a high cliff that shaded it, and it remained frozen for several months each the year. Agua Pura began using the reservoir as a source for ice. The railroad ran a nine-mile spur line from Las Vegas, along the area that is now Cinder Road, past the hot springs two miles to the reservoir. The ice was used for refrigerated freight cars transporting vegetables from California to eastern markets. Montezuma became one of the major ice-producing centers in the west, and up to 300 men were employed seasonally by Agua Pura Ice Company for the cutting, storing and shipping of 50,000 tons of ice annually, until mechanical refrigeration became available in the 1930s.