Box Springs Mountain
| Box Springs Mountains | |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 3080+ feet, (939+ m) NGVD 29[1] |
| Location | |
| Location | Riverside County, California, USA |
| Coordinates | 33°57′42″N 117°16′49″W / 33.9616831°N 117.2803191°WCoordinates: 33°57′42″N 117°16′49″W / 33.9616831°N 117.2803191°W[2] |
| Topo map | USGS Riverside East |
Box Springs Mountain, at about 3,080 feet (940 m), is the highest peak in the Box Springs Mountains range in north-west Riverside County, California, United States. The mountain is east of downtown Riverside, and north-west of Moreno Valley, a partial border between the two large cities. Most of the mountain is part of the Box Springs Mountain Reserve, a 1,155-acre (4.67 km2) park operated by the county,[3] but because the mountain is one of the more prominent features in the Riverside-San Bernardino urbanized area, the summit is used for numerous telecommunication towers, including transmission towers for the KOLA 99.9 and KGGI 99.1 radio stations.
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[edit] History
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. A teamster surrounded it with a box to maintain its water, and thats where it got its name.[4]
The letter C is embedded on the Riverside-facing side. The "Big C" was built in 1957, mostly by UC Riverside students. E.L. Yeager donated the materials for the C. The "Big C" is approximately 1,500 feet above the UCR campus, and was the world's largest poured-concrete block letter,[citation needed] 132 feet high by 70 feet wide.[5] The C is often vandalized with graffiti.[6] 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.[citation needed] Between December 2, 2009 and December 6, 2009, Moreno Valley and Southern California Edison lit up the "M" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of cityhood.[citation needed]
[edit] Geography
Box Springs Mountain provides wildlife habitat in the fast-growing Inland Empire Metropolitan Area, with populations of snakes, lizards, coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, bears, deer and burros, some of which wander into the populated areas below.[7] There are several large eucalyptus trees that were planted at its base that originally marked sources of water.
The mountain is susceptible to wildfires and the summer fires often char the hillsides and poses a danger to residences at the base of the mountain.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Box Spring Mountain, California". Peakbagger.com. http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=1428. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
- ^ "Box Springs Lookout". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:239628. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
- ^ "Box Springs Mountain Reserve". Riverside County Parks. http://www.riversidecountyparks.org/locations/regional-parks/box-springs/. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ Holtzclaw, Kenneth M. Images of America: Moreno Valley, Arcadia Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7385-5569-0.
- ^ "Riverside: Traditions". University of California. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/general_history/campuses/ucr/traditions.html. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
- ^ Marek Chrobak. "UCR's Trail of Shame". http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~marek/thecstuff/. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
- ^ Lee, Dan. Annoying yet loveable; Untouched by law, they face challenges, The Press-Enterprise, 2004-12-18. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
[edit] External links
Media related to Box Springs Mountain at Wikimedia Commons
- "Box Spring Reserve". University of California Natural Reserve System. http://nrs.ucop.edu/Box-Spring.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-22.
- Google Maps Satellite view of Box Springs Mountain showing the large painted concrete letter "C"
- Google Maps Satellite view of Box Springs Mountain showing the large painted letter "M"
