The beautiful turquoise blue water of the "Great Pagosah Spring" won the Guiness Book of World Record title of "The World's Deepest Geothermal Hot Spring" on August 20, 2011. The Mother Spring is the natural source of the piped in hot water that feeds local soaking tubs and swimming pools and heats many of the town's buildings in the winter. The water temperature remains a constant 120 degrees to 140 degrees depending on the seasons.
A representative from the Guiness World Records and a hydrologist from Durango, Colorado measured the depth, but only 1002 feet was recorded as the plumb line ran out before reaching the bottom. The spring measures 35 feet across and the depth averages 20 to 30 feet. About 15 feet from one edge is a 2 foot diameter hole. It is the main spring that reaches an unknown depth and is where the measurement was taken.
The spring was first discovered by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and they named it "Pah" which means water and "Gosa" which means boiling and is how the town of Pagosa Springs got its name. It was eventually changed to mean healing water.
The Utes and Navajos fought over the springs and none of the fights solved the problem of each tribe's claim of ownership. So they decided to settle the issue by sending one man from each tribe to fight. The winner's tribe would claim the springs. The Navajos picked a big man and the Utes picked a longtime friend of theirs by the name of Colonel Albert Pfieffer and the tribes gathered at the western end of Pagosa Springs. There is a monument that has been erected just off Highway 160 that tells the story of this fight. Pfieffer quickly overcame his opponent and killed him and the Ute's claimed the spring.
The first white American to discover the spring was Captain John N. Macomb who was leading an expedition for the United States Topographical Engineers, Macomb first sighted and described the springs in July 1859. Sometime in the 1860's the United States Army studied the medicinal effects of the spring and in 1874 the Burnett Agreement was signed giving the white man possession of the spring. The first bath houses were erected in 1881 and a town was born.
PLEASE DO NOT THROW WISHING COINS INTO THE SPRING.