Radium Springs, NM

Radium Springs is a Doña Ana County CDP at the upstream end of the Mesilla Valley, on the Rio Grande corridor north of Las Cruces. Its name comes from the mineral hot springs that soldiers from nearby Fort Selden once used; before 1926, the place was known as Fort Selden Springs. Across the river, Fort Selden State Monument preserves the adobe remains of the nineteenth-century army post, while the old 1908 diversion dam points to the agricultural work that shaped the valley. The local shorthand is springs, fort, river, and the road north through the valley.