B O Y D 'S    S A N A T O R I U M

In wilderness is the preservation of the world --Henry David Thoreau

Boyd's Sanatorium, Organ Mountains, New Mexico

+Roadtrip::Dripping Springs+

[Van Patten Camp]   [Boyd's Sanatorium]   [La Cueva]

explored by: Shady & Angeleyez

As we continued on our hike, the afternoon air was blazing hot and dry and the canyon was really quiet except for the droning buzz of insects and the occasional scream of a far-off hawk. A few hundred feet further up the mountain we approached what was once Boyd's Sanatorium, it's remains still mostly hidden from view behind clusters of rocky outcroppings and pockets of thick, thorny desert fauna. The silence took on an ominous atmosphere as I considered how far from civilization we were, and how many hidden dangers lurked in the bright sunlight around us.

These buildings, which were once all part of a tuberculosis sanatorium, were constructed around 1910 by Dr. Nathan Boyd, medical doctor and international businessman. Legend says that Dr. Boyd had a beloved wife who was suffering from the terrible disease, and that he built the place, up in the rugged yet beautiful mountains, for her. There are other rumors about Boyd's Sanatorium, as well. Rumors of a more... unknown element. Some say that this canyon is filled with restless spirits, and that some of them happen to be the spirits of the patients who passed away up at the mountainside sanatorium.

The Caretaker's house, above, had a  wooden porch with a breath-taking view of the valley below. It is not hard to imagine that there might be spirits here. The trail leading up to this place is officially closed every day well before dark, earlier in fact than all of the other trails in the area. And, there have been reports of campers in the nearby canyon campgrounds being terrified by strange visions and horrific nightmares featuring torturous treatments undergone by gaunt and ghostly "patients," even though some of the campers are said to have no prior knowledge of the nearby sanatorium's presence. There have been various paranormal investigations at this location; one group even claims to have gotten photos of "shadowy figures" in the ruins. In fact, it was here at Boyd's Sanatorium where my camera started acting up and would not work at all- I had to borrow my Sis' camera to get these shots. The camera had worked fine at the Van Patten ruins, and it began to work once again as soon as we went a little ways down the trail away from the sanatorium... it just would not function, period, the whole time we were in the vicinity of the sanatorium.

A hand-hewn stone stairway, above, leads up the mountainside to where the patients housing used to stand. All that remains of these buildings now are the foundations and low stone walls that outline the shapes of where they once existed. We found the remains of an old drinking fountain along the path. Standing in the spot where the patient's housing used to stand, I could look down the mountainside toward the Caretaker's house. The wooden skeleton of the old guest house stands further down the trail.

Water was piped in from the springs nearby to a holding tank above the terraces where the patient's housing stood; piping carried the water down to the residences and the drinking fountain below. The kitchen and dining hall (below) was located in a separate structure, perched high atop stilt-like beams along the mountainside.

In the early 1900's, Dr. Boyd was involved in a court case that would eventually deplete his funds; the sanatorium was sold to a Dr. T.C. Sexton from Las Cruces in the 1920's. It was intermittently run as a sanatorium and resort for several more years. Nathan Boyd's son, Earl, bought the place back in the early 1930's and moved onto the land, living in the Caretaker's house. In 1940, while Earl Boyd was away serving in the military, the remote structures were subjected to heavily damaging vandalism and looting by unknown parties. The place has been vacant ever since, despite changing hands one more time before being acquired by the Bureau of Land Management in 1988.

The sun was getting lower in the sky, so we decided to hustle back down the trail before we ran out of light altogether. After all, there was still one more infamously mysterious place in the vicinity that we had yet to explore...

BACK TO VAN PATTEN CAMP      CONTINUE ON THE TRAIL TO LA CUEVA

Our visitor Katlin from Las Cruces sent us her chilling tale of an encounter at Boyd's Sanatorium: "One night my friend justin I hiked up to boyd's sanatorium and experienced some freaky stuff. We constantly saw shadowy figures and heard some crazy sounds. But the worst was when we saw a full body apirition cloaked in black. It scared the sh** out of us. When it discovered we saw it it turned around and vanished..."

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