Alamos Springs was originally a camping ground with good water on the Southern Emigrant Trail during the California Gold Rush.
In 1853, squatters David Cline (or Kline) and William Moody, started a ranch at these springs that was described by Benjamin Ignatius Hayes who visited it on January 14–15, 1861:[1] Six miles brings us to the Willow Station.
To San Bernardino from here, passing Agua Mansa if you choose, a first-rate road, with sufficient water and bunch-grass at this season, and indeed in summer, for the traveller.
From Kline's, passing a dozen huts belonging to the Indians within a common fence, (ground in cultivation), we begin in 4 or 5 miles to ascend gradually into the pass of Temecula mountain, ... [2][3]The station continued in use after the Overland Mail shut down, it remained in use during the American Civil War as a camp for Union Army troops.
[4] With the grant of Rancho Temecula patented to Jean-Louis Vignes in 1860,[5] Kline and Moody had failed to acquire title to the land and probably like many others lost their ranch during the Great Drought of 1863–64.
To the south, in Temecula, some open land of the Kline's Ranch still remains as a flood control basin, near Santa Gertrudis Creek with Alamos, (Populus sect.