Slates Hot Springs
| Slates Hot Springs | |
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| Unincorporated community | |
Aerial view of Slate's Hot Springs and Esalen Institute, 2015
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 Slates Hot Springs
Slates Hot Springs
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| Coordinates: 36°07′25″N 121°38′14″W / 36.12361°N 121.63722°WCoordinates: 36°07′25″N 121°38′14″W / 36.12361°N 121.63722°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Monterey County |
| Elevation | 118 ft (36 m) |
Slates Hot Springs (formerly, Big Sur Hot Springs,Slate's Hot Springs,Slate's Springs, and Slate's Hot Sulphur Springs) is an unincorporated community in the Big Sur region of Monterey County, California. It is located 8 miles (13 km) 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 and it attracted others seeking a cure for their physical ailments. He sold the property to Salinas physician Dr. Michael 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 Esselen 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 tests of artifacts found near Slates Hot Springs, presently owned by Esalen Institute, 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 in Soledad, and Mission San Antonio de Padua in Jolon. Without resistance to European disease, large numbers died from measles, smallpox, and syphilis, along with starvation, over work, 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.
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