Mercey Hot Springs (formerly Mercy Hot Springs) is an unincorporated community and historical hot springs resort in the Little Panoche Valley of

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populo ...

, central

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, about west-southwest of

Fresno Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

History

Historically the hot springs were used by Native Americans. Local native peoples introduced the springs to John Merci, a

sheep herder A shepherd is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations; it exists in many parts of the globe, and it is an important part of Pastoralism, pastoralist animal husbandry. ...

and early European settler; he later changed the spelling of his name to Mercy. The springs were discovered by settlers on the Arroyo de Pannochita in 1848. During the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

it was known as the Aguaje Panochita. This watering place was used by mesteneros as holding point for their captured mustangs. It was a station on

La Vereda del Monte La Vereda del Monte (Spanish for "The Mountain Trail") was a backcountry route through remote regions of the Diablo Range, one of the California Coast Ranges. La Vereda del Monte was the upper part of La Vereda Caballo, (Spanish for "The Horse Tr ...

used by the

Five Joaquins Gang The Five Joaquins were a mid-19th-century outlaw gang in California which, according to the California State Legislature, state legislature, was led by five men, identified as follows: "... the five Joaquins, whose names are Joaquin Murrieta, Jesu ...

driving their horses southward to their hideout on the Arroyo de Cantua. Frank F. Latta, JOAQUIN MURRIETA AND HIS HORSE GANGS, Bear State Books, Santa Cruz, California. 1980. The later resort opened after 1900. In 1912, Mercy sold the property to Frederick Bourn, who was a real estate developer from San Francisco. Bourn built cabins and a hotel at the hot springs. In the mid-1930s the hotel burned in a fire, and a bathhouse and restaurant was built to replace the hotel. Later a campground and swimming pool was added.

Hot springs water profile

The natural hot mineral water emerges from one of the sources at , and from an artesian well at 110 °F.

Facilities

There are cabins at the hot springs available to rent, tent spaces and RV campsites. There is a pool large enough for swimming that is fed from an artesian hot well, and several bathtub soaking pools. A bathing area is located along South Fork Little Panoche Creek and the Little Panoche Road ( Fresno County Road J1) located at the western edge of Fresno County. A motel is located about ten driving miles west of

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

. The facility is along the San Andreas Rift Zone.

Location

Mercey Hot Springs is located in the Little Panoche Valley, the facility includes natural

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

s. Little Panoche Road was formerly part of a stagecoach route. The ZIP Code of the settlement is 93622, and the community is inside

area code 559 Area codes 559 and 357 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan for the central San Joaquin Valley in central California. The numbering plan area includes the counties of Fresno, Madera, Kings, and Tulare, an area largely c ...

. It lies at an elevation of .

References

External links

BLM web page for Panoche Hills.
{{authority control Hot springs of California Resorts in California San Joaquin Valley Bodies of water of Fresno County, California La Vereda del Monte