Salt Spring, sometimes called Salt Springs, was a
spring in the
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
, in
San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...
. It was a spring along the course of
Salt Creek a tributary of the
Amargosa River.
History
Salt Spring was a water source for the native people of the surrounding desert. From 1829 it was a water hole and stopping place established by
Antonio Armijo on the
Old Spanish Trail between
Nuevo Mexico and
Alta California
Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...
.
In 1849 the spring became a stop for wagons traveling along the
Mormon Road
Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of S ...
between
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. The first party of wagons to visit the springs on their way to California found gold in the hills to the east, which became known as the
Salt Spring Hills and the mining settlement later established was called Salt Spring.
Today the location of Salt Spring, once on Salt Creek, is now buried by debris brought down Salt Creek by flooding in the early 20th century that changed the course of the creek, but it was located about 0.5 miles north of the intersection of
California State Route 127 and Saratoga Springs Road.
[Reynolds, Robert E., Field Trip Guide, The Changing Face of the East Mojave Desert Abstracts from the 2001 Desert Symposium and Robert E. Reynolds, Editor, LSA Associates, Inc., 1650 Spruce Street, Suite 500, Riverside, California 92507. California State University, Desert Studies Consortium, Department of Biological Science, California State University, Fullerton, California 92834; in association with The Western Center for Archaeology & Paleontology, Western Center Community Foundation, 1160 University Avenue, Suite G, Riverside, California 92521, April 2001]
References
{{coord, 35, 38, 25, N, 116, 17, 26, W, display=title
Springs of San Bernardino County, California