Box Springs Mountain

Box Springs Mountain towers over eastern Riverside, California, and western Moreno Valley, California, roughly forming the border between the two Inland Empire cities.

Peaking at 3,047 feet, this craggy brown mountain is among the most prominent features of the central Riverside County landscape. Many of the local Radio stations, such as KOLA 99.9 and KGGI 99.1 have antennas there, as it is the highest point between San Bernardino and Riverside.

The letter "C" is embedded on the Riverside facing side. The Big C was built on Box Springs Mountain in 1957, approximately 1,500 feet above the University of California, Riverside campus, and was the world's largest poured-concrete block letter, measuring 132 by 70 feet. It was constructed primarily by students with materials and some labor donated by Berkeley alumnus E. L. Yeager. Each freshman class had the responsibility for painting the letter and keeping it clean throughout the year. One of the traditions of the Big C was its constantly changing character. During student elections it took the shape of one of the candidates' initials, and during exams it sometimes became a C minus or D. [http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucr/traditions.html] . The placement of the "C" within the boundaries of a wildlife preserve is controversial, since increased traffic along the trail leading to the "C" resulted in significant degradation of the natural habitat, including littering, graffiti and soil erosion. [http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~marek/TrailOfShame/] .

The letter "M" was embedded on the Moreno Valley side of the mountain in 1966 as a symbol of Moreno Valley, which had not yet incorporated.

The mountain is susceptible to wildfires; the summer fire season often chars the hillsides and poses a danger to some residences at the base of the mountain.

Box Springs Mountain also contains a wildlife habitat in the fast-growing Inland Empire region, with populations of snakes, lizards, coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, bears and deer, some of which wander into the populated areas below. There are several large eucalyptus trees that were planted at its base to mark sources of water.

Box Springs Mountain is said to have gotten its name during the 1880s when teamsters with horse-drawn wagons would stop at an arroyo to water their horses in a natural spring. As the spring deteriorated, one teamster sunk a wooden box -- minus its bottom -- into the spring to reinforce it.

External links

* [http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=33.971178,-117.302034&spn=0.004342,0.007317&t=k&om=1 Google Maps Satellite view of Box Springs Mountain showing the large painted concrete letter "C"]
* [http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=16&ll=33.959758,-117.279026&spn=0.008685,0.014634&t=k Google Maps Satellite view of Box Springs Mountain showing the large painted letter "M"]
* [http://www.celsius1414.com/node/1283 Story with photographs and KML files of a hike to the top of Box Springs Mountain]