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...

Pioneers trickled into the areas of Rainbow, Fallbrook, and DeLuz in the mid-1800s, attracted by the mild climate and the promising soil, which rewarded their efforts with bountiful harvests of honey, olives, and fruit. Railways transported new settlers and commerce to the quiet countryside and shipped produce out, bringing prosperity to "the Friendly Village" and to the surrounding areas. Each of the towns, hidden by mountains and just far enough away from main roads, stayed small for a long time. The eventual construction of schools and post offices testified to the permanence of the...

In the 1870s, the Spaniard Juan Murrieta and his business partners found green pastures for their sheep in the Temecula Valley, where Native Americans had lived for centuries in southwestern Riverside County. The Spaniards owned 52,000 acres consisting of two Mexican land grants, the Temecula and Pauba Ranchos, until the partnership dissolved. Murrieta stayed on his 1,000-acre ranch until 1884, when he sold his land to a developer who named the new town site Murrietaville. Two years earlier, the Southern California Railroad opened a line into the Temecula Valley. In 1900, a girl named Hale...

Vineyards flourish in Temecula because of the ideal climate. The name Temecula is taken from Luiseno words that mean "where the sun and earth were created." At an altitude of 1,500 feet, the filtered sunlight and an ocean breeze that drifts through a gap in the mountains coax the decomposed granite soil of Temecula Valley to produce high-quality grapes for premium wines today just as they did over a century ago. From the time the Spanish padres entered the valley and made sacramental wines and French and Italian immigrants brought vines from the Old World, its grape harvests were unknown to...

The original inhabitants called Temecula the place of origins, "the place of sand and sun." From the beginnings of the Native American village to the introduction of the railroad that made it into a Western town in 1882, Old Town Temecula captivates visitors and residents with its rustic charm. Cattlemen and cowboys frequented the saloons, and Hollywood's elite found liquor flowing during Prohibition in Old Town establishments where legendary stories of high times and crimes are retold today. After World War II, Old Town was at a crossroads, and residents and travelers dined in roadside cafes...

In the far southwest corner of Riverside County, a center of commerce grew in the 19th century near the junction of the Temecula and Murrieta Creeks. A stop along the Southern Emigrant Trail and Butterfield Stage route brought a few travelers to Temecula who liked the place and stayed. A cattle baron grazed his stock in the rich pastureland and dominated the economy until the mid-1960s, when an investor bought the land to build a planned community. Today Temecula is the home of over 90,000 people. Old Town Temecula celebrates its frontier past, and the Temecula Wine Country entices visitors...