Pagosa hot springs

Before the arrival of Hispanic and Anglo settlers, the springs were used by the Ancestral Puebloan people, and later by Ute, Navajo and Apache.[3][4] The springs are known to the Ute people as Pah gosah which is translated to mean either "healing water" or "water (pah) that has a bad smell (gosah)", referring to the pungent odor of hydrogen sulphide gas produced by the interaction of sulphur with anaerobic bacteria in the mineral water.[5][6]

The Pagosa geothermal hot springs are located on the western slope of the Continental Divide. The sulfur-rich water emerging from what is called the "Mother Spring" has been measured between 110 °F and 144 °F (62 °C).[4] The water originates from 6,000 feet below the surface from volcanic activity.[7]

The mineral content of the waters consist of arsenic 0.12 mg/L, boron 1.8 mg/L, chloride 180 mg/L, fluoride, 4.3 mg/L iron 0.08 mg/L, lithium 2.9 mg/L, manganese 0.23 mg/L, magnesium 25 mg/L, potassium 90 mg/L, silica 25 mg/L, sodium 790 mg/L, sulfate 1400 mg/L, and zinc 0.01 mg/L.[8]

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  Pagosa Hot Spring on the shore of the San Juan river, Colorado
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  The Mother Spring - Pagosa Hot Springs, Colorado
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  Sulphur formation at Pagosa Springs
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  Hot Springs in winter
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  Pagosa hot springs in 1874, photograph: Timothy O'Sullivan
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  Man Bathing in Pagosa Hot Spring, 1874, photograph: Timothy O'Sullivan

• List of hot springs in the United States
• List of hot springs in the world