Soda Dam is surrounded by 15 springs with a maximum temperature reaching as high as 118°F. That’s 16-18° hotter than the average hot tub! Other travertine deposits in the area are 500,000 to 1 million year old.
Around 1970, the New Mexico State Highway Department blasted a large hole in the dam to run the current Highway 4 through it. The disruption from the blast alerted the spring resulting in slow disintegration of the dam. In 1976, Soda Dam went into the administration of the U.S. Forest Service.