About 100 residents spent a couple hours exploring the historic Old Woman Springs Ranch north of Yucca Valley Saturday. Managing editor Tami Roleff was one of them, and says the Morongo Basin Historical Society coordinates a tour of the property about once a year…
About 30 miles north of Yucca Valley is the 400-acre Old Woman Springs ranch that you’ve probably driven by and always wondered about. There are at least four springs on the ranch, including the original Old Woman Springs, which was named in 1856 when a white government surveyor found several Native American women there. The ranch was the winter home for cattle from the Heart Bar ranch in Big Bear. The springs fill several large ponds as well as a huge swimming pool on the property, and at one time, were used to irrigate alfalfa fields as well as fruit orchards and cottonwood trees, and provide water for the livestock. While the property is still privately owned, it is no longer used for ranching and most of the land has returned to desert.
