In 1873 Juan Murrieta, who bought the Temecula Rancho with partners Fransisco Zanjurjo and Domingo Pujol, began calling the region “Murrieta Hot Springs.”
By 1902, Fritz Guenther, a German emigrant, sold his saloon in Los Angeles and bought 1000 acres surrounding the springs to develop with his wife and children. Visitors in the first few years, slept in tents, and enjoyed the hot springs on the property, which was much like tiny western town.
Beginning in 1904, the Guenther family built a resort empire constructing three modern and innovative hotels on the property. They become a hot spot for celebrities and the rich of Los Angeles, even attracting the Angels baseball team in 1911. The family raised their children and grandchildren on the property, pouring their lives into the resort.
In the 1970s, the Guenther children sold Murrieta Hot Springs to Irvin Kahn, an attorney and real estate developer who had visited the resort as a child in the 1930s, for $1.35 million. A Beverly Hills firm master-planned the modernization and expansion of the facilities.
In 1983, a group called Alive Polarity bought the resort. The 300-member community turned the facility into a vegetarian, no-alcohol, no-caffeine, no-tobacco, no-television, and no-telephone commune. Members gave up their possessions after a three-year trial period. However, after a failed cancer clinic went under, the springs was abandoned.
In 1995, the property was redeemed when Pastor Chuck and Kay discovered and purchased the property for a mere 5 million. They had a vision for the Hot Springs to be a place of Bible teaching and conferences to serve all the local churches. Despite many comments that it was a "dump", they persevered with an amazing team of students, congregants and laborers who restore Murrieta Hot Springs into the beautiful place it is today.