Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-02-17
THEY HAVE RETURNED.
Party Visited the San Diego Land
Grant.
A DELIGHTFUL TRIP.

On Tuesday last a party composed
OF Hon. Amado Chaves, of Santa Fe,
and A. B. McMillen, Summers Burk-
hart. II. p. Owen and Fred. Otero start:
ed for Jemez hot springs for the pur-
pose OF holding court at convenient
place for many of the claimants under
the grantees in the Canon de San
Diego land grant to testify as to their
holdings under the grant This grant
is tract situate in the northwest part
| of Bernalillo county, comprising in
area more than ten miles square.
Leaving Bernalillo station at IL o'clock
a. m, a first rate four-horse team, un-
der mastery handling of the ribbons
by Fred Otero, brought the party to
Blocks hotel at Jemez hot springs at
1880 in the evening
The canon itself is a wonderful sight,
In contour perfect V, perhaps not
more than 200 or 800 yards wide at>the
base. rising to an altitude of 1000 feet,
and mile and half across at the top,
and in distance of twelve miles ac-
cessible at only two places on either
side. Several hundred yards from j.
b. Blocks hotel are the renowned hot
springs, carrying many minerals in So
luton, and different springs in radius
OF few hundred feet vary in tempera-
ture from 40 degrees to 1856 degrees,
or very close to the boiling point. A
modern bath house, fitted with porce-
lain tubs and cement flooring, receive
the waters fresh from the springs at
any temperature desired, and If the
! legends OF the place be true, the waters
have robbed rheumatic and kidney dis
eases of all their terrors. But the
most picturesque object of interest is
the soda dam located a mile or more
north of the spring, the soda in the
lapse of ages having formed barrier
25 feet high clear across the canon.
! The top of the dam is perforated with
small soda springs which make a
healthful and delicious drink-particu-
larly when served, a la highball. How
ever the delight of the party was the
marvellous appetite which the combina-
tion of springs and bountiful whole
some table of Mine Host Block brought
TO every member, the joint increase in
ayoirdupois requiring an extra horse
to be added TO the team returning on
Saturday night. With such wonderful
natural curiosities and advantages
near home it is surprising that so few
Albuquerquans have visited the
springs.
The suit is brought for a partition of
the grant and the families of some
seventeen grantees are being traced
back to the Eighteenth century, when
the grant was made. II is wonderful
with what precisene IS and ease old
men and women of Mexican and Span
ish descent can trace their ancestry.
both paternal and maternal, back for
hundred years, The fact that in the
Spanish customs the maiden name of
the wife's family is not lost, she mere
ly adding the husbands name TO her
own, adds to their power in this direc-
tion. In the slut a contest is being
waged between NJ. S. Otero's interests
and those OF other claimants for pos
session of the springs, the soda dam
and the timber lands on the common
lands of The grants. There seems TO be
no disposition on the part of any claim
ant to question the rights of those who
have held lands in severalty for a num-
ber of years past