Sulphur Springs. Courtesy/PEECPEEC News:
Two of the many Take Wing events that PEEC is offering exclusively to those who donate $150 or more to its capital campaign, are coming up soon and filling up fast.
Saturday, Sept. 20, donors will have the chance to visit the numerous geothermal hot springs at the unusual Sulphur Springs. Husband and wife team Fraser and Cathy Goff will lead the tour and interpret the geology of the area, which they have studied extensively.
The Goffs will lead another tour Monday, Sept. 22, this time through the Valles Caldera, including areas not visited on the regular Valles tours. PEEC is raising roughly $1.2 million through the capital campaign to fund indoor and outdoor exhibits and a professional planetarium projector for the new Los Alamos County Nature Center, slated to open in Spring 2015.
Sulphur Springs was once a small resort, where people bathed in the acid waters and mudpots in an attempt to cure skin ailments. The resort burned down in the 1960s, and nearly all of the original facilities have disappeared. Anthony Corbin, son of John Corbin, who along with three others bought the property in 1983, will present thehistory of Sulphur Springs on this unique tour.
Everyone has wanted to visit this land, from the Conquistadors, to Al Capone, to hippies who set up a commune there. The PEEC tour will present the unique opportunity to see this amazing property (now for sale), which includes numerous geothermal hot springs.
Fraser and Cathy Goff will interpret the geology of the area, which they have studied extensively. The tour is 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 20. Registration is limited to 15 participants.
Sept. 22, the Goffs will again lead a Take Wing event, this time to explore parts of the Valles Caldera which are not offered on the regular Valles tour. The Valles Caldera is one of three active calderas in the mainland United States, and the hot magma is only three miles below your feet.
The Goffs will conduct a fact filled tour of the east and central parts of the Preserve, dispelling many of the myths that have grown up locally and providing some thought provoking answers to the public’s curiosity about this wonderful landscape. This tour will meet at the Valles Grande staging area at 8:45 a.m. and conclude at roughly 4:30 p.m. Already, 10 people have registered for this event, which is capped at 13.
Fraser Goff is a retired geologist for LANL and adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico. He has been working on the Valles Caldera Preserve for many years and has authored numerous books and papers dealing with the geology of the caldera. Cathy Goff, also a geologist, is retired from U.S. Geological Survey.
Registration is required for both tours, and space is filling up. Donors of $150 or more to PEEC’s capital campaign can register online by visiting https:////www.pajaritoeec.org/takewing/events.php.