. >> we are at leesburg dam state park. we will also visit a lot of other places in the las cruces area. where are you taking us? alex: we will see leesburg dam state park area, will travel to the village of a native indigenous community. we will see old mesilla, which dates back to the 1850's. of course we will see parts of old downtown las cruces as well. >> let's get to it. right now we are overlooking leesburg dam state park. tell me more about this area. alex: this is a really old area. we just start with the natural environment, the geology and terrain, the rio grande, the river below us, is only one of five rivers in the entire planet that is in a valley it did not create. the reason the river is in the valley now is because it sits atop a rift. as a result of this rio grande rift, underneath the valley and parts of the river like here at leesburg, there is actually geothermal activity. there is still magma, hot, molten magma. as a result, the groundwater and river water that come in contact when it pushes back up cre

. >> we're at lee'sburg dam state park and we're going visit other areas. where are we going. >> today we'll see leesburg dam state park area. we'll travel in closer to go within the village of tortuga. a native indigenous community weather'll also see old mesia which dates back to 1850s and old parts of downtown loss crews sees as well -- loss cruise sees. >> we're overlooking leesburg dam state park. >> this is a really, really old area. it with just start with the natural environment, the geology and terrain, the rio grand, that river right below is only one of five rivers on the entire planet that is in a valleyed did not create. the recent that river is in the valley now because it sits atop a rift so as a result of this rio -- rio grand rift, underneath their river there's geothermal activity. so still magma and so as a result, the ground water and the river water that come into contact with that, when it gets pushed back up, it's hot springs. so these springs in addition to being geothermal and being hot in the riverbed, mixing with cold water, they c

cannot right now we are overlooking leesburg dam state park. more about this area. >> this is an old area. natural with the environment, the geology and the terrain. that river below us is one of only five rivers in the entire planet that is in a valley that it did not create. the reason that river is in the valley now is because it sits atop a rift. underneath the valley and parts of the river to mother are still geothermal activity. result, the groundwater and the river water when he gets pushed back up it is a hot spring. in addition to being hot they also contain an element known as radium which has a radioactive half-life. there are a lot of people who believe that it has therapeutic and healing properties, medicinal properties. has attracted people for thousands of area -- thousands of years to these areas. say thousands of years you really mean early settlers to the area. >> this particular area we're looking at, the level on the right-hand side is the leather mountains, they are the highest in the area, just shy of 9000 feet among -- be