Willow Springs Station was a changing station at Alamos or Willow Springs along the Second Division route of the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

, in what is now

Murrieta Murrieta is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The population of Murrieta was 110,949 as of the 2020 census. Murrieta experienced a 133.7% population increase between 2000 and 2010, making Murrieta one of the ...

, in Riverside County, California. It was also known as Alamos, Clines's or Kline's, or Willows, was one of the later

stations, placed in 1859, between some of the original stations for changing teams and providing water between stops in hot dry areas. Willow Springs, also originally known as Alamos Springs, was located west of the hills that line the east side of the

Temecula Valley The Temecula Valley is a graben rift valley in western Riverside County, California. The Temecula Valley is one of the graben valleys making up the Elsinore Trough, created by the Elsinore Fault Zone. It lies between the Wildomar Fault on the e ...

, on land of the Rancho Temecula, near Santa Gertrudis Creek on the low flood plain of Murrieta Creek, between Santa Gertrudis and Warm Springs Creek.

History

Alamos Springs was originally a camping ground with good water on the

Southern Emigrant Trail :''The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Northern Emigrant Trails.'' Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage ...

during the California Gold Rush. In 1853,

squatters Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

David Cline (or Kline) and William Moody, started a ranch at these springs that was described by

Benjamin Ignatius Hayes Benjamin Hayes, or Benjamin Ignatius Hayes, (1815–77) was an American pioneer who was the first judge of the district court that served Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties in California. His seminal rulings are still cited in tha ...

who visited it on January 14–15, 1861: The station continued in use after the Overland Mail shut down, it remained in use during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

as a camp for

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

troops. Company D, 2nd Cavalry, California Volunteers was described at the Post at Kline's Ranch in the Spring of 1862 by Lt. Col.

Richard C. Drum Richard Coulter Drum (May 28, 1825 – October 15, 1909) was Adjutant General of the United States Army from 1880 to 1889. Early life He was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Jefferson College before entering the printing busi ...

in his report of his tour of inspection of forces in Southern California. With the grant of Rancho Temecula patented to

Jean-Louis Vignes Jean-Louis Vignes (April 9, 1780 - January 17, 1862), also known as Don Luis del Aliso, was a French-born Californian vintner and ranchero. He was the one of the first commercial wine makers in California and one of the first men to import and pla ...

in 1860, Report of the Surveyor General 1844–1886
/ref> Kline and Moody had failed to acquire title to the land and probably like many others lost their ranch during the Great Drought of 1863–64.

The site today

Today the site is located within a business park near the present-day intersection of Cherry Avenue and Jefferson Avenue in Murrieta. To the south, in

Temecula Temecula (; es, Temécula, ; Luiseño: ''Temeekunga'') is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The city had a population of 110,003 as of the 2020 census and was incorporated on December 1, 1989. The city is a ...

, some open land of the Kline's Ranch still remains as a flood control basin, near Santa Gertrudis Creek with Alamos, (

Populus sect. Aigeiros ''Populus'' section ''Aigeiros'' is a section of three species in the genus ''Populus'', the poplars. Like some other species in the genus ''Populus'', they are commonly known as cottonwoods. The species are native to North America, Europe, and ...

) still growing along the old creek bed.

References

{{coord, 33, 31, 37, N, 117, 10, 21, W, display=title Butterfield Overland Mail in California American frontier