New Mexico's Ojo Caliente resort is steeped in history The greatest treasure that I found these strange people to possess are some hot springs which burst out at the foot of a mountain . . . so powerful are the chemicals contained in this water that the inhabitants have a belief that they were given to them by their gods. These springs I have named Ojo Caliente." — Cabeza de Vaca, 16th-century Spanish explorer. Situated on a 1,000-acre land grant ceded by Spain to Antonio Joseph, New Mexico’s first territorial representative to Congress, Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs Resort & Spa is surrounded by natural geologic features and history reflecting thousands of years of human presence. Long before the Spaniards discovered these springs, the waters at Ojo Caliente — with their remarkable combination of arsenic, iron, soda and lithium — have been erupting from the earth. A favorite of locals, these springs have special meaning for the descendants of those who inhabited the Ojo Caliente drainage from the late 1300s until the early 1500s....