The Box Spring is a spring in Riverside County,

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 ...

, around which grew the town of Box Springs, an unincorporated community. It is in the Moreno Valley, east-southeast of downtown Riverside 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 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) is a trade union, 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 union now represents a di ...

with horse-drawn wagons would frequently water their horses at the natural springs 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. 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. The reserves support UC's mission of teaching, research, and public service. Unlike national and state parks, they are not availab ...

, is located on Box Springs Mountain on a steep granitic 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) and mountain lions ( Felis concolor); 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 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 organi ...

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 Americans in the United States, Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California. ...

and

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 ...

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