In 1949, the Clary and Ruther State 1 oil test adjacent the southeast boundary of the NMSU campus encountered hot water and “steam.” Later in the mid-to-late 1950s, a couple of shallow domestic wells drilled within a half mile south of the campus east of I-25 in the present day Las Alturas neighborhood encountered “warm and salty” water. Until the 1970s, these reports of geothermal heat in the area were largely treated as a curiosity. Then during a period of five years between 1973 and 1979, New Mexico State University experienced a major increase in the cost of natural gas that exceeded 400 percent. Through the vision and leadership of Gerald Thomas, former NMSU President and Harold Daw, former NMSU Vice President of Research, campus expertise in renewable energy was mobilized to find a cost effective solution