According to Mission San Juan Capistrano's application for the National Register of Historic Places, "Published oral accounts indicate that a sizable Indian settlement was located near the springs.

[2] According to U.S. government geologist Gerald A. Waring's report of 1915, the springs "were formerly visited by the Indians, who built mud huts (temescals), for use as vapor-bath chambers.

Back in the seventies, there was a passable trail, and the wayfarer making a pilgrimage to the healthful shrine was sure of a friendly welcome from the native Indians that frequented the place, with their sick [and] lame..."[4] In oral history interviews done in the late 20th-century, Acjachemen people described their grandparents going to the hot springs area in the autumn to collect acorns for food.

[6] During the early settlement era, the springs were owned by ranchero Juan Forster, who "blocked development at the site to ensure access to the waters by Indians and other poor local residents.

They are sixty-five miles from Los Angeles, and there has been no railroad or hotel near them, yet people in great numbers are constantly making pilgrimages to this far-away place.

[8]After the railroad came through, a regular stage operation from the train station to the springs was established in 1889, and the following year a dance hall and boarding house opened.

[7] In 1907 a judge described the route:[9] One rides from Capistrano in the valley of San Juan creek for twelve miles amid a great variety of hill and plain, forest and field, running waters, clear and cool, the stream being crossed several times (the sand and gravel beds at the crossings making the sole exception to a good road) and the valley gradually narrowing till reaching here, where the principal springs are in the northwest side at an elevation of fifty to sixty feet or more above the creek bed...High up the southeast hillside is a spring of mineral water similar in its constituents to the hot, but water very cold.

[11] The owners advertised the local hikes, and trout fishing in the nearby stream, and stated that "tubercular and other objectionable cases" would not be admitted.

[12] According to the Los Angeles Times per San Juan Capistrano historian Pamela Hallan-Gibson, "At one point, the springs had a large swimming pool and a store that sold wine, sandwiches and candy.

"[7] The county had also recently increased the monthly lease payment, there was a recession, and according to one official, consumer fears about AIDS transmission may have contributed to the resort's struggles.

[18] The springs are now fenced off with barbed wire, but there is a picnic area across San Juan Creek that serves as a respite spot for hikers.

[18] Access from Ortega Highway has been blocked with gates, but there is a 13-mile (21 km) round-trip hike from the park entrance that routes past the springs.