The Box Spring is a spring in

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, around which grew the town of Box Springs. It is in the

Moreno Valley Moreno Valley is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and is part of the Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario metropolitan area. It is the second-largest city in Riverside County by population and one of the Inland Empire's po ...

, east-southeast of downtown

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

on Interstate 215/ State Route 60 (the Moreno Valley Freeway). Box Springs is named on the 7.5 quadrangle map, Riverside East (1967).

History

The town of Box Springs and the

Box Springs Mountains The Box Springs Mountains are a mountain range in northwest Riverside County, California, United States. The highest peak of the range is Box Springs Mountain, which stands just over tall. Parks The Box Spring Mountain Reserve, operated by th ...

are named after a little-known but "very important spring of water at the base of the mountain." In the 1860s, a local resident, John Brown Sr., made improvements to the fresh cold water spring by building a wooden box containment structure around it to improve access to its flow. The spring was well known to locals and travelers alike. In the 1880s,

teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the u ...

with horse-drawn wagons would frequently water their horses at the

natural springs A spring is a point of exit at which groundwater from an aquifer flows out on top of Earth's crust (pedosphere) and becomes surface water. It is a component of the hydrosphere. Springs have long been important for humans as a source of fresh w ...

located in an arroyo (water canyon fed by an intermittent stream) in the range now known as the Box Mountains.Holtzclaw, Kenneth M
Images of America: Moreno Valley
Arcadia Publishing, 2007. . In the 1930s, Box Springs was known to have a gasoline filling station as well as a garage.

Infrastructure

Although it is now a somewhat overlooked water source, part of the Moreno Valley gets its water supply from the Box Springs Mutual Water Company, fed by Box Springs; the water company was set up in the 1920s and currently distributes water to with 600 hook-ups/connections. The community has an elementary school called Box Springs Elementary School, which is part of the

Moreno Valley Unified School District Moreno Valley Unified School District is the third-largest district in Riverside County, the 23rd largest in California, educating more than 34,000 students in grades TK-12 at 40 schools. It is the fourth-largest employer in Moreno Valley. The ...

. In 2018, construction had commenced in the Box Springs area on a 125-unit multifamily project called Continental Village, as well as a 266-unit project, Oak Park apartments.

Box Springs Reserve

The Box Springs Reserve, which is facilitated by the

University of California Natural Reserve System The University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) is a system of protected areas throughout California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents acros ...

, is located on Box Springs Mountain on a steep granatic slope. It is named after the Box Springs cold freshwater and its associated seeps that feed an intermittent stream. The reserve provides habitat for many species including but not limited to 16 mammal species including mule deer (

Odocoileus hemionus The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related w ...

) and mountain lions (

Felis concolor The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

); 19 species of reptiles, three of which are considered rare species. Many bird species are seen there, and several species of raptors hunt in this habitat including the golden eagle, red-tailed hawk and turkey vulture. Box Springs is mentioned in the introductory chapter "Evolution of the UC Natural Reserves" in the book, ''The Environmental Legacy of the University of California Natural Reserve System'', and in the book ''Fire in California's Ecosystems''.

Box Springs Mountain Reserve

The UCR Box Springs Reserve is closed to the public, however the Box Springs Mountain Reserve is a Riverside County Park and is open to the public. There are several miles of trails on the reserve. These multi-use trails range in various levels of difficulty. There are bathrooms and picnic areas at the trail heads. A historical

stagecoach stop A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

was located at Pigeon Pass near the spring. There are suggestions of grinding rocks (''morteros'' or

metate A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organic ma ...

s) in the area which would indicate past use by indigenous peoples. The area was used by the late-Prehistoric

Cahuilla The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.Luiseño The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of L ...

people. The presence of the perennial cold springs at Box Springs Canyon encouraged use of the area during prehistoric times, as a cupule rock and 24 grinding rock stations have been found nearby.

References

Reference bibliography