Slates Hot Springs (also known as Big Sur Hot Springs, Slate's Hot Springs, Slate's Springs, and Slate's Hot Sulphur Springs) is the site of a hot spring in the

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ...

region of

Monterey County, California Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Monte ...

. It is located north-northwest of Lopez Point, at an elevation of 118 feet (36 m). Thomas B. Slate filed a land patent for the site and adjacent land on September 9, 1882. He built a home on the site of the springs in 1868 and developed the springs for tourists. He claimed that the waters cured him of

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

and it attracted others seeking a cure for their physical ailments. He sold the property to Salinas physician Dr. Henry Cloyd Murphy in 1910, whose family owned it until 1967, when Michael Murphy and Dick Price bought it from the estate of Michael's grandmother, Vinnie McDonald Murphy. They incorporated the business as

Esalen Institute The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Potenti ...

History

Native people

The

Esselen The Esselen are a Native American people belonging to a linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who are indigenous to the Santa Lucia Mountains of a region south of the Big Sur River in Big Sur, Monterey County, Califor ...

people resided along the upper Carmel and Arroyo Seco Rivers, and along the Big Sur coast from near present-day Hurricane Point to the vicinity of Vicente Creek in the south, including Slate Hot Springs.

Carbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was de ...

tests of artifacts found near Slates Hot Springs, presently owned by

, indicate human presence as early as 3500 BC. With easy access to the ocean, fresh water and hot springs, the Esselen people used the site regularly, and certain areas were reserved as burial grounds. The coastal Santa Lucia Mountains are very rugged, making the area relatively inaccessible, long-term habitation a challenge, and limiting the size of the native population. The Esselen population was largely decimated when they were forcibly relocated to three Spanish missions: Mission San Carlos in Carmel,

Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad ( es, Misión Nuestra Señora de la Soledad), commonly known as Mission Soledad, is a Spanish mission located in Soledad, California. The mission was founded by the Franciscan order on October 9, 1791 to co ...

in Soledad, and

Mission San Antonio de Padua Mission San Antonio de Padua is a Spanish mission established by the Franciscan order in present-day Monterey County, California, near the present-day town of Jolon. Founded on July 14, 1771, it was the third mission founded in Alta California ...

in Jolon. Without resistance to European disease, large numbers died from

measles Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

, and

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium '' Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, a ...

, along with starvation, overwork, and torture. This wiped out 90 percent of the native population. Today, a few people in the area can still trace their ancestry to the Esselen and they maintain a relationship with Esalen Institute.

Homesteading

In the 1870s, Thomas Slate visited the Big Sur site to use the hot springs because he suffered from severe

. On September 9, 1882, he filed a land patent under the

Homestead Act The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of t ...

of 1862. The settlement began known as Slates Hot Springs. It was the first tourist-oriented business in Big Sur, frequented by people seeking relief from similar afflictions. In 1918, the California State Mining Bureau issued a report from the state mineralogist about the springs and their properties. According to the report,

Murphy family

In 1910, the land was purchased by Henry Cloyd Murphy, a Salinas, California, physician. Murphy bought the property with the intention of opening a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an-style health spa, when the yet-to-be-built

Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

was completed. Before the Carmel-San Simeon Highway was completed, the springs site was used by engineers and others involved with the construction. The highway was opened in 1937 but gas rationing and a ban on recreational driving during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

severely limited visitors. After the war ended, the resort was managed by a series of property managers. A restaurant was available and the hot springs baths were open to paid use. The official business name was "Big Sur Hot Springs", although it was more generally referred to as "Slate's Hot Springs". In 1924, John and Julia Pfeiffer Burns leased pasture land from former U. S. congressman

Lathrop Brown Lathrop Brown (February 26, 1883 – November 28, 1959) was a wealthy United States Representative from New York. Born in New York City, he graduated from Groton School in 1900 and from Harvard University in 1903, where he was roommates with Fran ...

at Saddle Rock Ranch, near McWay Falls, on land they later donated to the state that became Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. They lived in Slate's Hot Springs where they worked for the Murphy family serving visitors to the springs.

Current use

The springs and resort were leased from Henry Murphy's widow Vinnie MacDonald Murphy, by her grandson, Michael Murphy, and Dick Price in 1962. They wanted to create a venue where non-traditional workshops and lecturers could present their ideas free of the dogma associated with traditional education. They incorporated their business as a non-profit named

in 1963.

References

Bibliography

* * {{authority control Santa Lucia Range Big Sur Hot springs of California