Tassajara Hot Springs is a collection of natural hot springs within the Ventana Wilderness area of the Santa Lucia Range and Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, California. The hot springs were used by the indigenous Native Americans for generations before they were discovered by Europeans in about 1843. The springs have been the site of various resorts since 1868. A horse trail was in use until in 1886, when a stagecoach road was constructed over Chews Ridge to the springs. Monterey County designated the road to the resort as a public highway in June, 1870. Charles Quilty bought the resort in 1886. He had a sandstone hotel built. He and members of his family owned the springs until 1945. The new owners refurbished the hotel but it burned in a fire in 1949. The resort changed hands several times over the next three decades. One owner planned to add a helicopter service, but he was killed in an airplane crash. Since 1967, the hot springs have been the site of a Zen Buddhist monastery which is open to visitors during the summer months only. Etymology Tasajera is a Spanish-American word derived from an indigenous Esselen language, which designates a "place where meat is hung to dry." It has also been known as Tassajara Springs, Tesahara Springs and on mining claims as Agua Caliente ["Hot Water"]. Location The hot springs are located from Carmel Valley Road. The springs are privately owned by the San Francisco Zen Center which operates the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center on site. The last of the road into the springs is extremely narrow and steep, and visitors are encouraged to use four-wheel drive vehicles or take a shuttle from Jamesburg, California, where the Zen Center maintains offices. Jamesburg is at the foot of Chews Ridge, from the hot springs. Geology In 1918, the state mineralogist from the California State Mining Bureau produced a report detailing the large amount of hot water that issues at Tassajara Hot Springs through about seventeen thermal springs in the bed of the creek and along its southern bank. These range in temperature from about to and vary from mere seepages to flows of a minute. Thermal waters issue from a gneiss exposed along the creek for a distance of or more. Above and below this exposure the rock is granitic and in some places contains small garnets. The crystalline rocks