Truth or Consequences

Mud Spring, Palomas, and Fort McRae

Truth or Consequences stands in Sierra County, New Mexico, and the Hot Springs Bathhouse and Commercial Historic District lies in the southern part of the city, “T or C as it is locally known.”¹ Prehistoric groups knew the hot springs, and the state historical marker says Native Americans first used them for healing.^1,3 In 1581, according to the marker, the Spanish captain Sanchez Chamuscado took possession of the region for the King of Spain and named it Ojo de Zoquete, mud spring.³

Las Palomas, settled in 1856, was the nearest settlement, so the site was first named Palomas Hot Springs, a name it carried until 1914.¹ The 1940 WPA guide explained that Las Palomas, Spanish for the doves, took its name from the thousands of doves that lived in the cottonwoods along the river and around the springs.⁴ Indians, Spanish colonists, cowboys, and miners stopped there, the guide said, before there were any accommodations at Hot Springs.⁴ The largely Hispanic settlements nearby were bolstered in 1863 when Fort McRae was established on the east bank of the river, named for Captain Alexander McRae, who died in the Civil War battle of Valverde in February 1862.^1,5 The fort was ordered dismantled in 1879, and its cemetery was removed to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1886.⁵

Engle Dam and the Village of Hot Springs

Until 1907 much of the ground that became the historic district was bosque woodland and tule swamp.¹ Work on the dam, initially named Engle Dam, was under way by late 1911, while the state marker dates Elephant Butte Dam to 1910 through 1916 and says it was the world’s largest irrigation reservoir when completed.^1,6 Otto Goetz found fewer than 100 residents when he arrived in Palomas Hot Springs in 1914.¹ In 1916 the land was opened for settlement, with pre-emptions granted to those already there.¹ The settlement’s leaders applied for incorporation as a village in November 1915, and Hot Springs was incorporated on June 7, 1916.¹ A 1919 plat of the Townsite of Hot Springs brought systematic order, though the narrower streets south of Main Street kept the alignment of earlier growth.¹ Main Street itself was not opened as a through street until 1934.¹

Health-Seekers and the County Seat

From its incorporation until 1950, Hot Springs more than doubled its population in each census, as bathhouses and apartments went up for visitors to the health resort.¹ The Women’s Improvement Club, founded in 1920, set out to welcome health-seekers.¹ Magnolia Ellis opened a healing clinic in Hot Springs, and the state marker records that patients claimed to feel electricity when she touched them.⁷ Known as the “Magnificent Magnolia,” she put Hot Springs on the map, in the marker’s words, and her 1945 residence and office stands at 310 Broadway.^1,7 The Carrie Tingley Hospital for crippled children, a Work Projects Administration project, went up in 1937 to treat infantile paralysis, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt took an active interest in its construction.⁴ In 1938 Hot Springs wrested the county seat from Hillsboro.¹

In 1940 the WPA guide counted 4,269 people, called the town the largest in Sierra County, and described a trading center for the surrounding mining, stock raising, and farming areas.⁴ The guide called it a health resort whose population was increasing rapidly, on ground underlaid with hot rocks that reached 120° at a depth of 120 feet.⁴

A Name From the Radio

In 1950, the tenth anniversary year of Ralph Edwards’ radio show “Truth or Consequences,” Hot Springs voted to take the program’s name, according to the National Register nomination.^1,2,3 The state marker gives the year as 1951 and says the name came in response to a contest from the program.³ The inaugural event that year marked both the show’s 10th anniversary and the decision by the City of Hot Springs to retire a name inspired by its geothermal water.²

The Bathhouse and Commercial District

The district keeps the Artesian Mineral Baths of 1929 at 322 Marr Street, the O’Dell Apartments of 1928, now the Sierra Grande Lodge, and the Texas Home Court of 1925, now the Hot Springs Bakery.¹ The 1939 United States Post Office stands at 300 Main Street, and the ornamental pylon of the former Ritz Cafe, from 1946, rises at 508 Broadway.¹