The Health Benefits of Hot Springs: Jacumba #LeaveNoTrace
About an hour east of San Diego, in the middle of the desert on the border of Mexico, you'll find Jacumba Hot Springs. It's where you can stop on your journey on Old Highway 80 going between San Diego and Phoenix.
Long before recorded history, ancient people used hot springs for bathing and food preparation.
According to archeological evidence, the utilization of natural mineral waters for the treatment of disease has been practiced for over 5,000 years. On this continent, Native Americans for untold years, have used hot springs as campsites, village locations, and sacred places.
The evidence of Native use of hot springs remains today. Soon after Europeans arrived in North America, hot springs were sought out and exploited. Today there are an estimated 1800 hot springs in the United States, the majority of which are in the West. Out of those hot springs, approximately 115 have been developed into extensive resorts or spas. California and Nevada are the two largest producers of geothermal power in the country. California, in fact, produces more geothermal energy than anywhere else in the world.
California and Nevada Hot Springs Guide
Hot springs, thermal waters, and agua calientes are found on every continent, revered as sacred and held as places of great power. The gift of water is often mythologized and has been associated with goddesses throughout history, connecting us across time to the otherworldly and the divine. It's near water that we hold important ceremonies, celebrating life and death, calling on the power of the natural world to cook, bless, witness, and heal. One theory along Freudian lines is that bodies of water are female. We are all born from a flood of fluid. There is security in being drawn back into the womb.
And the womb includes water. Of course, there's also the feeling of being held, of cleansing, and the somatic surrender of muscles in tension. The treatment of disease by soaking and mineral waters long used in distinct ways by indigenous peoples. Different healing waters with different mineral properties have been used to treat various ailments ranging from the physical to the emotional and spiritual, as well as for purification ceremonies, gatherings, and tribal meetings. Today throughout Europe and Japan, doctors commonly prescribe hot springs therapy and hydro therapies as preventative treatment for many illnesses. Today, we have a more scientific understanding of hot springs and thermal waters. They exist because of shifting tectonic plates, heated groundwater, and the collection of minerals.
Healing waters continue to be found all over the world, making the promise of the fountain of youth seem more probable than ever.
THERMAL
After a handshake agreement at an auction, this border town was purchased by Melissa Strukel. Along with a few of her friends and her business partners helping her along the way, she’s managed to not only fill up the lake but revive this desert border town.
It's been two years since I visited here. I was on a road trip from Seattle to Mexico, working on the first draft of my book, when an article came across my hot springs Google alerts. I was so intrigued I chased this story from nearly Canada to the Mexico border.