The History of the Zendo Building
Tree-Ring Archeology at the Bodhi
The Bodhi campus is one of the sites of historical interest in Jemez Springs. In 2019, some high-tech tree-ring archeology helped to date the oldest building at the Bodhi. Major maintenance was necessary in the dorms of the Zendo building requiring the underlying floor joists be removed. There were funds designated from the 2017 Fund Raising gala for a major renovation to the building, but as progress was made, disaster struck: a major water leaked caused significant additional damage to the dorms. The damage required some of the original floor joists to be removed. Nevertheless, this incident opened an opportunity to investigate some of the history of the building.
It was during this time that Hosen’s friendship with a prominent Jemez Springs resident led to some archaeological sleuthing to uncover the historical background of the building’s construction. Many in our sangha may not know that, not only is the Zendo building the oldest in the Bodhi complex, but it is one of the oldest buildings in the history of the village of Jemez Springs. The expert knowledge of Prof. Tom Swetnam, a Jemez Springs native and current resident of Las Conchas, helped us to put the pieces of the historical puzzle together.
Dr. Swetnam is an expert in using tree rings to learn about environmental and cultural history. He is Regents’ Professor of Dendrochronology, Emeritus, at the University of Arizona. He studies natural and cultural disturbances of forest ecosystems across a broad expanse of time and geography. His primary tool is called dendrochronology: the use of tree rings to reconstruct and evaluate variations in past and present environments. Using tree-ring records in combination with other natural archives and documentary sources, he and his collaborators have reconstructed the histories of fires, insect outbreaks, human land uses, and climate. Swetnam operates a small tree-ring lab from his home near Jemez Springs and is involved in a number of tree ring dating projects in New Mexico. These include dating historic buildings in Santa Fe, Ranchos de Taos, Abiquiu, Isleta Pueblo and Jemez Springs.
Cross-section showing 1800’s style nail
Several cross-sections from some of the extracted floor vigas from the Zendo building were cut with a chainsaw by Prof. Swetnam for his expert evaluation. “Cut steel nails” were present in some of the old timbers (left). This type of nail was typical of construction during the 1880s and earlier. The surface of each cross-section was polished to reveal the annual growth rings of the original trees. All rings were counted under a binocular microscope at 10 to 30 power magnification. The rings show a pattern of thicker and thinner lines that reflect how the weather affected the trees growth during different years; wide rings represent wet years when growth was abundant, and narrow lines reveal drier years or drought. Next he prepared “skeleton plots” of the ring-width patterns, and cross dated the plots with a master tree-ring width chronology developed from dozens of tree-ring samples from four sites in the Jemez Mountains.
The ring-width patterns cross dated very well with historical data. A number of narrow rings are present on the cross sections including 1801, 1806, 1822, 1842, 1851, 1861, and 1880. These are all well-known drought years in northern New Mexico. The ring formed in 1816 is exceptionally wide and this is also typical. All the beams had an outside, bark ring that was formed in 1881. The 1881 ring is not entirely complete, indicating that these timbers were cut in the late summer of 1881. This suggests that the building construction was in late 1881 or 1882.
“Jemez Springs” circa 1890, view looking north toward the current Zendo building.
So, what is known historically about the building? The old building is known to long-time residents of Jemez Springs as the “Stone Hotel”. But old newspaper documents and photos show that this building was also referred to as the “Block Hotel”, as it was owned by a Mr. Block who came to Jemez Hot Springs in 1885. He opened up a general merchandise store and hotel, and started a stage line to Albuquerque. Mr. Block's hotel “was known most favorably all through New Mexico and Arizona, Mrs. Block being the mainstay of the hotel” (History of New Mexico: Its Resources and People, Vol II, 1907, Pacific States Publishing Co., p.890-891). Other accounts suggest that the hotel could have been operated by Francisco Perea, a prominent New Mexican soldier, politician and entrepreneur who was the first Republican Hispanic-American Member of Congress. According to the official biography of Perea in the History, Art & Archives of the US House of Representatives “In 1881 Francisco Perea owned and operated a resort hotel in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, where he also served as postmaster from 1894 to 1905.” The dates for ownership by either Block or Perea are consistent with Prof. Swetnam’s tree-ring analysis. The same building now known as the Zendo building at the Bodhi Manda is shown in the 1884 photograph at the left. A man named Seth Seiders built a hotel on the north side of Jemez Springs that was known as the “stone hotel”, but this build appears to have been operated later, around 1926 (Kathleen Wiegner and Robert Borden, Images of America: Jemez Springs, 2009, Arcadia Publishing). The exact history of the Bodhi building remains uncertain, but its original construction date is now established.
In modern times, the site of the Bodhi Manda was owned the by Catholic church from about 1947. Additional buildings were built that eventually became part of the Bodhi Manda Zen Center. Michele E. Martin purchased the site and founded the Jemez Bodhi Mandala in 1973 as a place for Zen Buddhist practice and teaching. The original “Stone” Hotel survives at the Bodhi after much renovation and improvement allowing space for visitors’ dorms, a Zendo, and staff living quarters.
Inside of the Zendo where daily zazen takes place at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center
We express our gratitude to Prof. Swetnam for performing the tree ring analysis for the Bodhi, and for providing the historical photographic images of Jemez Springs and details about Jemez Springs history.