Manufacturer: Shenango China
User: Gilman Hot Springs
Distributor: Long Beach Store Fixture Co., Long Beach, Calif.
Date of plate: circa 1939 – 1948
Notes: From an extensive Wikipedia article: "Gilman Hot Springs, also known as San Jacinto Hot Springs or the Relief Springs, is a hot spring system in the Inland Empire area of Southern California. Located near Potrero Creek, the San Jacinto River, and California State Route 79, the springs system consists of 'about half a dozen' springs named for the Mexican land grant Rancho San Jacinto Viejo.
"According to one account, 'Indians' used the springs to clean off sheep prior to shearing. According to another, the Cahuilla peoples slept in the springs in winter, up to their necks, to keep warm at night. The Branch family began homesteading the property, partially acquired from the Southern Pacific railroad, in 1880 or 1881.
"In 1913, the property was sold for $53,000 ($1,231,135 today) to three brothers: William Earl Gilman (and his wife Josephine), Grant Gilman, and Forest Gilman. They were natives of Topeka, Kansas, and William E. Gilman had previously owned a hotel in Ocean Park that had burned in 1912. The Gilmans changed the name to Gilman Relief Hot Springs and later to Gilman Hot Springs. The original hotel reportedly had just five rooms. Gilman Hot Springs was one of three hot springs resorts near San Jacinto that offered visitors mineral water baths, mud baths and the opportunity to drink the hot mineral waters bubbling up from the San Jacinto Fault, an offshoot of the San Andreas Fault.
"In 1913 the Gilman brothers built a bathhouse, and a spring-fed swimming pool was built the following year. Later, the pool was expanded to an Olympic size. The resort was said to have a 'frame hotel and cottages and tents forming a little settlement in a grove adjacent to the springs.' A fire in the winter 1917 'razed all the original buildings and demolished all the initial improvements the Gilmans had made.' The replacement hotel was built with 'bricks and timbers salvaged from an old San Jacinto school building.'
"In 1930, visitors could get to Gilman's Hot Springs by either taking the Pacific Electric to Riverside and there connecting with a Motor Transit stage, or by taking a Santa Fe Railway train to San Jacinto, where an auto stage would then ferry them to the springs resort. The resort had its own golf course alongside the San Jacinto River. It was originally opened with nine holes in 1930; the course was later expanded to 27 holes before being destroyed in a flood.
"By 1940 there were 127 buildings on the property, accommodations for 400, horse stables, and tennis courts. The stable was later converted to a tavern. A service station and garage for use by visitors was added later that decade.
"The Riverside Community Book of 1954 described it as a 'moderately priced family resort.' Guests during the resort's heyday reportedly included Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Sugar Ray Robinson, and an unidentified president of Ireland.
"In 1963, William Earl Gilman II developed the nearby Massacre Canyon Inn, located on the south side of Gilman Springs Road, to accommodate dining and dancing. A training camp for boxers was also built in the grounds of the resort and was in use in the late 1960s. Among the boxers who used the facility were Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield, Sugar Ray Leonard, Ray Mancini, Armando Muniz, Rubén Navarro, Ken Norton and Jerry Quarry.
"The Gilmans attempted to sell out in 1971 for an estimated US $5,000,000 (equivalent to $39,749,384 in 2025). However, in 1973, the property was still in their hands. The resort had come to be known as the Massacre Canyon Inn, after the hotel built in 1963.
"After the resort went into bankruptcy in 1978, the property was acquired by the Church of Scientology for $2.78 million ($12,473,122 today). L. Ron Hubbard lived at the compound (called Gold Base) for a brief period prior to 1980. It is now a heavily guarded compound surrounded by high fences topped with razor wire and spikes, with a prison building nicknamed 'The Hole', and is inaccessible to the public. The Church of Scientology demolished the Massacre Canyon Inn, the Gilman Garage, and the golf course to make way for new buildings."
White body plate with a drawing on the rim at the top of the plate depicting the resort and its location. There are clouds and mountains in the background and a tall palm tree in the foreground. The drawing is mostly in black with the exception of the red roof of a building. Near the bottom of the drawing are the words "The San Jacinto Hot Mud Sulphur Springs" in black. Underneath are the stacked words "Gilman" in red, "Hot Springs" in black, and "California" also in black.
Source:
Wikipedia – history of the resort
Contributors:
Susan Fitzgerald: ID and plate photos
Ed Phillips: author