The Caliente Hot Springs in Sec. 8 and SW¼ Sec. 5, T4S, R67E have reported temperatures of 37.7-62°C (Waring, 1965; Sanders and Miles, 1974; Reed and others, 1983). The town of Caliente derives its name from the springs. The springs no longer flow; much of the water apparently flowing underground into Caliente Creek. However, a 250,000-L swimming pool can be filled in 4 hours with a small pump lifting water only 2.1 m (Smith, 1958).
The springs are along a fault in Tertiary volcanic rocks (Adams, 1944; Hardman and Miller, 1948; Phoenix, 1948a). Several water wells in the area have high temperatures. The highest is 62.8°C in the Wallis Health well near the Caliente Hospital (Sanders and Miles, 1974). The city of Caliente's North Well in the NE¼ Sec. 7, T4S, R67E is 39.6 m deep, and has water temperatures of 25.5°C at 7.6 m, 32.2°C at 30.5 m, and 53.3°C at the bottom (Phoenix, 1948a). The Caliente Public Utility No. 4 well in the SW¼ Sec. 5, T4S, R67E also is 39.6 m deep and has a temperature of 40°C (Rush, 1964). Another well "near Caliente Hot Springs" has a temperature of 57.2°C (Smith, 1958). At least some geothermal areas appear to be associated with faults (Trexler and others, 1980), and a near vertical limestone unit may act as a local control for rising thermal fluids in the near surface (Flynn and Larson, 1983).
The highest temperature reported in a producing well in the Caliente area is 67°C in the Agua Caliente Trailer Park (Trexler and others, 1980). Geothermal test wells drilled in the area in 1883 had reported temperatures of 80°C in a pumped well and 97°C in a nearby monitoring well, both at depths of less than 30 m (Flynn and Larson, 1983). A motel supplies geothermal water from a well to bathing pools and individual room whirlpool baths, and a trailer park supplies hot water to individual mobile homes. The Lincoln County Hospital (20 beds) was heated using 39°C water from a well on the site, but reduced temperatures (to 28°C) forced reliance on electric resistance heating. The hospital plans to use the lower-temperature fluids from its well for heating and cooling using heat-pump technology. The city swimming pool used geothermal heat in the past, but was damaged during the winter of 1992 and will probably be replaced. A grant from the Rural Development Administration to the City of Caliente funded the study of potential uses of local geothermal resources. A nearby perlite processing plant was proposed as a user, for plant process heat. If more funding is found, the city plans to provide heat to the hospital, swimming pool, and eventually an elementary school and youth training facility (Glen Van Roekel, oral commun., 1994).