Tony Guenther

Murrieta Hot Springs (Images of America: California)) Tony Guenther

The sulfurous, effervescent waters of Murrieta Hot Springs have long attracted visitors. Native American petroglyph and pictograph images directed weary travelers to the springs where Juan Murrieta later bathed his sheep and a San Diego firm laundered clothing. In 1902, an enterprising German immigrant named Fritz Guenther developed acreage around the springs into a world-class resort and health spa at the Murrieta Hot Springs. After the Guenther family sold the resort, a stream of owners reportedly laundered money for the Teamsters Union and vended cancer cures, vegetarian foods, and holistic philosophies to those who ventured near enough to inhale sulfur rising in thick clouds of steam. Now the springs bubble under the watchful eye of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. They have renovated the grounds and buildings to honor the resort's former glory and have developed it into Calvary Chapel Bible College and Conference Center.