El Granito Springs was a natural spring in the vicinity of present-day La Mesa in eastern San Diego County, California, United States. The springs were named for their location in a granite outcropping near the San Diego River.
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Description and history
editDuring the Spanish–Mexican area of California history, a settler used the spring water for curing olives.[1] The spring was first commercialized around 1876.[2] In the early 20th century El Granito water was bottled and marketed to the public.[3]
According to a U.S. government geologist in 1915, "El Granito Spring is at the base of the granitic slopes at the southern border of El Cajon Valley, 16 miles by railroad northeast of San Diego. The water issues in a small tunnel in decomposed granite at the side of a ravine and is piped about 50 yards to a bottling house. It has been on the local market for several years as a table water. [Chemical] analysis indicates that the water is primary saline and secondary alkaline in character and also has notable primary alkalinity."[4]
The construction of Avocado Boulevard disrupted the hydrology of the springs and they ceased to flow in the 1970s.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b East County News Service (2015).
- ^ Fetzer (2005), p. 41.
- ^ Sanford (1911), p. 870.
- ^ Waring (1915), p. 350.
Sources
edit- n.a. (February 13, 1913). "El Granito display advertisement". San Diego Union and Daily Bee – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- East County News Service (April 2015). "Commemoration of Age-Old El Granito Springs". East County Magazine.
- Fetzer, Leland (2005). San Diego County Place Names, A to Z. Sunbelt Publications.
- Sanford, Samuel (1911). "Mineral Waters". Mineral resources of the United States, 1909: Part II – Nonmetals. Washington, D.C.: United States Geological Survey. pp. 857–896. doi:10.3133/70175795.
- Waring, Gerald Ashley (January 1915). Springs of California. U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey Water-Supply Papers. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 45–46. doi:10.3133/wsp338. Water Supply Paper No. 338. Retrieved 2023-11-11 – via HathiTrust.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
