Gilman Hot Springs is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its 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 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 ...

. It lies along

California State Route 79 State Route 79 (SR 79) is an approximately north-south state highway in the U.S. state of California. The highway's southern terminus is at Interstate 8 (I-8) at the Descanso, California, Descanso Junction in San Diego County, Califor ...

, adjacent to the San Jacinto campus of Mt. San Jacinto College.

Geography

Potrero Creek exits Massacre Canyon and joins the San Jacinto River at Gilman Hot Springs, just above

, with Potero Creek delivering a large amount of sediment that creates an

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

as well as periodically contributing to the flooding of the roadway.

History

Pre-settlement, it was the site of a village called ''Ivah'' that was occupied by what are now called the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians. This village was depopulated by a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

epidemic "early in the 19th century". Gilman Hot Springs was a

hot springs 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 ...

resort from the late 1880s until 1978. The settlement's elevation of above sea level was beneficial for the boxers who trained at the Massacre Canyon Inn in the 1970s. Circa 1973, the Gilman family owned 500 acres occupied by "a major hotel and golf club, called Massacre Canyon Inn, and a 27-hole golf course...several motel and apartment complexes and a number of homes that are leased, a large bathhouse, the Gilman family home and a U.S. post office building." The

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religiou ...

Gold Base Gold Base (also variously known as Gold, Golden Era Productions, Int Base or Int) is the ''de facto'' international headquarters of the Church of Scientology, located north of San Jacinto, California, United States, about from Los Angeles. The h ...

complex is located in Gilman Hot Springs, California 92583.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Riverside County, California Spa towns in California Luiseño

Geography

History

See also

References