3 friends found a rebel resort

Sometimes, I have my hostel management imagination. Somewhere in southern California, perhaps in Oujai, I will find a rural spot looking for their owners to sell, where I can spend my days greeting the guests, pouring coffee, and drawing long -distance walking maps. It may be a common dream among travelers. For me, it is definitely unrealistic one – I couldn’t deal with headaches, bills or washing. I definitely do not imagine myself in this scenario, and I became the mayor of the city mainly.

Melissa Stowell, internal designer from San DiegoShe did not see these things for herself. In 2020, she and her friend were on a wild flight along the old highway in California 80. In the mountains near the Mexican border, they passed the thicker motor. Something about it caught her attention: a pink interface that looks out of all of the nineties, in addition to the presence of natural hot springs. She told me: “I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I couldn’t stop talking about it.” “I knew that there is something bigger to happen, and that it was part of my life in some way.”

A few months later, Strukel heard that the property was for sale and made an offer. Nevertheless, the purchase came with an unexpected item: you will not only buy the hotel, but also a dilapidated fuel station, several homes and stores, an unconventional bathroom without a roof, and a dried lake. When the back story told me, he reminded me of my 2011 family movie, “We bought a zoo.” Perhaps Hollywood should make a sequel, think, and call it “buy a city.”

Jacumba Hot Springs, the shy population of 900, is about 70 miles east of San Diego. Strukel and her friends have transformed business partners, an internal designer, Jeff Ospuren, a real estate investor – on my visit last October to find out what they created. My career from Los Angeles took me across the Pacific Ocean, before I headed east towards the rugged imperial valley, to the upper desert. The traffic fell. There were pockets of trees and autumn leaves that turn into gold. Mountains resemble piles of reddish rocks.

When I traveled to the city, I passed directly through and outside the other side. There is no stop light, only a few stores and homes similar to the farm. It seemed to be a village from the ancient West. But a great sign read the restaurant. roadblock. Metal baths. Enter a vortex – not to mention a pair of parked Land Rovers abroad – I faced that I arrived at the Jacumba Hot Hotel Springs.

Nouveau-hippie mood spreads: There is a reception in the Airgosy trailer; Straw umbrellas line up swimming pools. The rulings of the wicker lamp that hover inside the rural pergola. I met the three owners of the old MEZCAL model on the shadow of the shaded restaurant. As they told it, the story of Jacumba is equal parts in the real estate epic and the dream of the desert.

The road resort was built on the side of the road in the twenties of the twentieth century, when the travel of cars was modern and the drives were leisurely, due to the slower vehicles and the most cruel roads at that time. Families were leading for several consecutive days, and finding a nice stop was great. Jacumba has been announced as a well -being, designed to compete with places like Palm Springs.

The hotel and its metal waters soon became a common smuggler for Hollywood stars such as Marilyn Dietrich and Clared Jabal. During the ban, he was not close to the Mexican border. But all of this changed in the 1960s, when the highway 8 was built, bypassing the city. Tourism dried up, by the end of the twenty -first century, Jacumba fell into difficult times.

In 2020, shortly after the three friends acquired the property – and all that came with it – they moved to Jacumba to become part of the community. Perhaps they started as hotel jewelers, but they ended up until they became planned in a young town. “We are all of some kind of risk, not fear, not for capital gains,” Struskel said. “We are in this for adventure and practical.”

The buildings are connected to the hotel’s Adobe model, with spinning paths between rooms, moods and restaurant. The main attractions are two large outdoor gathering bathrooms fed by metal -rich springs. When I arrived on Saturday afternoon, the ritual swimming pool, which is kept between 98 and 101 degrees, is filled with daytime athletes from San Diego who were drinking cocktails and hanging in Kabanas. The rectangular coup was a little more cold and quieter; It is dedicated to guests who reside in one of 20 rooms in the hotel or the five nearby guests (which include a 16 -can sleep). Inside, there is a smaller swimming pool called Echo, which is kept at 102 degrees.

I have registered access to my wings, which, like the rest of the property, was decorated with hand-made things-an African stool, Turkish cushions, and the antique Chinese doors-who felt southern California. After settling, the four of us moved through the village. It was not the trio – STRUKEL, Winters, and OSBorne – only a hotel; They reactivated a town. The lake is now full of water and landscapes and open to the public. Through the street, David Lampley, Strukel friend, runs an ancient store, called Railroad Trading Post, as he also cuts music records on the 1938 machine.

On that night – after a wonderful rib in the Jacumba’s Restaurant – I joined 30 other people in the old Bathhouse, a short distance from the hotel, to attend the Blogras party. In the 1970s, a fire left the arched structure, pink with pink walls. But the city’s sponsors have falsified them with candles, carpets, thermal lamps and a bar. Free parties are held there most weekends. The crowd was a mixture of local population and visitors, including 30 and 40 years in broad edges, enjoying live music under the stars.

The next morning, I took the proposal of the owners and visited the Jacumba Community Center in the street, which contains a small restaurant, mostly to the locals. Winters, one of the participants’ Jacumba owners, volunteers as a waitress. The director of the center told me that the prices were low – as coffee fades, six paintings of pies and eggs – to attract the entire society.

There were more than twenty people – their families, retirees, and old warriors among them – eating and chatting, and whenever I asked, hotel owners praised their supervision of the city. An older man told me that he lived in one of the houses sold with the hotel – and despite the renewal of the new owners, they did not raise the rent. Another man, very luxurious, said that he lived in the city for 45 years, and that Strekel and her friends were “the best thing here at all”, citing new visitors and job opportunities. “It is amazing what they did,” he added. (About 70 percent of the hotel staff live near.

The three friends of San Diego have plans for more: new restaurants, new stores, and possibly registration studio. “We love the people of this society,” will tell me. “They are like a family now. We want everyone to feel good and welcome.”

A copy of this story appeared for the first time in the May 2025 issue Travel + entertainment Under the title “Pottery has ended”