In 1917, Van Patten went bankrupt and sold Dripping Springs to Dr. Nathan E. Boyd. Boyd’s wife had recently contracted tuberculosis. Boyd turned the resort into one of the first tuberculosis clinics funded by the federal government. Boyd’s Sanatorium was a cluster of buildings some 100 feet beyond the former Van Patten Camp. Only foundations remain of the patient facility of 1910; however, the caretaker’s house is still intact. Rumors exist of the “restless spirits” that have haunted campers, exciting paranormal investigators.
Dr. Boyd, a Stanford graduate in medicine, also opened the First National Bank and Union Bank in Las Cruces. He was part of an investment group who proposed a dam near Las Cruces to control the flooding Rio Grande. Encountering financial difficulties, he sold the sanatorium in the 1920s to Dr. T. C. Sexton of Las Cruces.
