Tassajara Hot Springs

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Tassajara Hot Springs, also known as Tassajara Springs, Tesahara Springs and Agua Caliente, is a location in the Ventana Wilderness^[1] area of the Santa Lucia Mountains in Monterey County, California. The site is currently owned by the San Francisco Zen Center, which purchased it for the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center from Robert and Anna Beck^[2] in the 1960s.

[edit] History

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The name "Tassajara" is derived from an indigenous Esselen language word meaning "place where meat is hung to dry."^[3]

The area experienced a brief silver rush in the 1860s.^[4]

The first road to the Tassajara Hot Springs was constructed in the late 1880s.^[5]

[edit] References

^ The Wilderness Land Trust (28 February 2007). "Land Within California's Ventana Wilderness protected." (html). “The Horse Pasture was named for the flat meadows once used by wranglers to pasture livestock when stage coaches serviced the nearby Tassajara Hot Springs. The inholding was identified as a high priority conservation acquisition because of watershed and recreational features, as well as the potential threat of development as a wilderness retreat.”
^ David Chadwick (19 February 2002). "Interview with Robert Beck." (html). cuke.com.
^ Janet Fullwood (29 November 2006). "Serene escapes: Where less is more." (html). The Sacramento Bee. “Visitors in the late 19th century came to "take the cure," traveling by stage via a road so rocky and steep that tree trunks were chained to the vehicles' rear axles to serve as brakes on the downgrades. Even today, in a modern four-wheel drive vehicle, it takes a solid hour to cover the rough, winding dirt-and-rock road leading from the chic Carmel Valley wine lands to the secluded retreat 5,000 feet above sea level.”
^ David Rogers. "A History of The Caves Ranch." (html). The Double-Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox 1999, Vol. II, # 3. “In 1863 there was a brief "silver rush" in the Tassajara region, when 135 men established 18 mining claims ("supposed to contain gold and silver") in the "Agua Caliente Mining District." These claims, which were recorded between the first and twenty-first of May of that year, were divided into three series … The first claim of the first series (those about 40 miles from Monterey), to the "Vulcan Ledge," included "the stream of water called 'Agua Caliente'" (i. e., Tassajara Hot Springs).”
^ David Rogers. "The First Passenger Wagon to Reach Tassajara." (html). The Double-Cone Quarterly, Winter Solstice 2000, Vol. III, # 2. “Although the Monterey County Board of Supervisors declared the trail to "Tesahara Springs" to be a "public highway" in June of 1870, it was not until the spring of 1886 that work on a one-lane wagon road over Chews and Black Butte Ridges was commenced.” [See also: Chews Ridge & Black Butte photographs, John Fedak, February 2006.]