In 1849, James Hervy Simpson, a lieutenant and engineer in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, was ordered to survey a wagon road as a southern alternative to the Santa Fe Trail from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Simpson hired two brothers, Edward "Ned" and Richard Kern, to provide survey sketches that included the pueblo ruins of Giusewa and natural hot springs of Ojo Caliente, which are known today as Jemez Springs. Prior to incorporation in 1955, Jemez Springs, like many frontier towns, was supported by ranching, logging, and mining. It also had an influx of...