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The first thing visitors see when arriving at Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel is its ornate, imposing front doors.

They’re 500 years old, hand carved and from Morocco — which may come as a surprise at a hotel in an unincorporated town in San Diego County’s high desert, less than half a mile from the border with Mexico.

The doors lead to a patio in front of the hotel, with an array of decorations representing cultures around the world, including Pakistan, Turkey, India and Uzbekistan. There is a carving from the Pacific Islands; another door is from China.

To hotel owners Jeff Osborne, Melissa Strukel and Corbin Winters, these older objects fashioned from natural materials carry an authenticity they crave.

The trio began working on this project six years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strukel, an interior designer, came across the hotel in Jacumba, a 6.1-square-mile town of around 700 people, according to most recent U.S. census data, in a valley amid the Sonoran Desert mountains. She was drawn in to what she describes as the town’s energy vortex, a metaphysical phenomenon that some locals claim causes strange coincidences.

‘An opportunity of a lifetime’

Upon learning that the hotel was for sale from its longtime owners, Strukel shared the news with her two close friends: Winters, a work colleague and fellow designer, and Osborne, a real estate client-turned-collaborator who had just ended a two-year road trip across the country in his converted school bus.

When the trio visited the hotel together in July 2020, they knew they had finally found what they had all been searching for: an antidote to modern development.

As they moved to purchase the hotel, though, the three partners were surprised to learn that it came attached with 155 acres of the town. Those acres make up the vast majority of the town, including Jacumba Mountain, a lake, a gas station they’ve since converted to their office and all but two buildings on the main street.

The two buildings under different ownership are a market and DeAnza Springs Resort, a formerly nude RV park that recently shifted to require clothing.

At the time, though, the lake was overgrown with invasive plants and was being used as a dumping ground. The hotel itself, which had opened as a motor lodge in the 1950s and then transformed into a Southwestern roadside hotel, had also fallen into disrepair.

Undeterred, the three friends bought the hotel and adjoining property for $3 million and have since spent over $10 million on renovations and redesign. The trio says the project is entirely self-funded.

“I don’t think any of us knew exactly what we were signing up for to any degree, but just that this was something that was drawn to us and that we were supposed to do,” Osborne said. “It felt like an opportunity of a lifetime to do something like this.”

Founded in the 1920s by former San Diego Mayor Bert Vaughn, the mineral springs established a healthy tourism economy as people sought out the then-popular health treatment. Visitors passed through the town along Old Highway 80 and the San Diego and Arizona Railway constructed by famed San Diego businessman John Spreckels. Hollywood stars such as Marlene Dietrich and Clark Gable would frequent the town as a getaway resort.

But in the 1960s, Interstate 8 was built to bypass Jacumba, impacting tourism. The town fell on hard times, and by the 1980s, most of its buildings had closed.

Now, the new owners of Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel are working to change that. The hotel has been open again for two and a half years, after around two years of being closed for extensive renovation.

A unique energy

Osborne, Strukel and Winters said they redesigned the hotel as a response to their ennui arising from the transactional, commercial world of modernity. They had grown dissatisfied with artificial, mass-produced materials and seeing what they describe as “the same town over and over again.” America has lost its soul, Osborne said — its buildings are no longer “of the place.”

But what does it mean for the Jacumba hotel to be “of the place” when its materials are sourced from far and wide, both geographically and temporally?

For the owners, the ability to feel the energy of the artist in the material is what grounds the hotel in its surroundings.

“Everything holds energy,” Strukel said. “That door holds the energy of the tree it was made from, the craftsman who carved it, time and weather wearing on it, all the people who have passed through it.”

Jacumba is located at many extremes: the edge of the county, the state and the country.

At times, that location has challenged them. In May 2023, immigration policy Title 42 expired, and about 550 people crossed the border to Jacumba Hot Springs for asylum and awaited processing by Border Patrol. The three friends worked with local residents to provide food and water for scores of people.

They have also joined with local residents in a fight against the construction of the 600-acre Jacumba Valley Ranch Energy Park, a $416 million solar energy and battery project by BayWa r.e. They filed an unsuccessful lawsuit, claiming the project violates environmental and zoning laws. Although the project has pushed forward, they were able to get a concession from the county, which is requiring Bay Wa r.e. to donate $4 million to a community fund.

Still, Osborne, Strukel and Winters say they take inspiration from those borders and the tension that comes with them. At Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel, they hope to create their own version of beauty from tension by bringing parts of the hotel from myriad cultures together to form a whole that, somehow, feels cohesive.

The three friends believe that design choices can affect people’s states of mind, leading them to choose softer corners and earthy tones to inspire relaxation and connection with others. Strukel shared that visitors have met lifelong friends and even spouses while staying at the Jacumba hotel.

An escape for visitors

The hotel owners report a rise in popularity since reopening, with hotel industry analysts noting that younger generations in particular appreciate more rustic and less commercial hotel options.

Visitors come from as near as the city of San Diego and as far as Europe, the owners shared. They said they come for different reasons, too: some to party, others to find relaxation while battling chronic conditions.

The hotel offers three pools, each with a distinct level of tranquility.

The largest is the Ritual Pool, the hub of community and activity at the hotel. Guests can lounge in the pool or rent a private cabana with lounge seating, a fire pit and food and drink services.

Next is the Solstice Pool, featuring a large arc of sunlight throughout the day. This pool is located at the center of the hotel, surrounded by guest rooms, and provides a quieter setting for guests to relax.

The Echo Room is the location of an indoor soaking pool. Featuring an oculus sunroof and white quartz surfaces, guests are asked to keep the room completely silent.

Hot spring waters are touted for carrying healing and regenerative qualities, and the hotel advertises 100% natural and non-chlorinated water, flowing from aquifers in the earth and into the property’s pools.

While the hot spring pools are undoubtedly the main attraction, the hotel also features several other amenities.

Guests can visit Shangri-la Grove, where tents are nestled among Afghan pines, for massages and spa treatments.

They can also visit the bar, which is meant to be a dark sanctuary from the heat or cold of the desert. Strukel said that she and Winters wanted to infuse the design of the bar with feminine energy, as it had previously exuded masculine energy.

The bar is decorated with belly dancing chains, which are said to have been brought in from Turkey, tribal items that women wear in rite of passage ceremonies across cultures and nude portraits of women, some of which guests may recognize from the now-shuttered Albie’s Beef Inn in the city of San Diego.

Guests can enjoy food at Long Shadow, the hotel’s restaurant named for how the shadows stretch across its patio. The menu includes a signature Jacumba Ribeye and Highway 80 Breakfast, as well as plenty of vegetarian and vegan options such as the Za’atar Bowl.

While dining on Sunday nights, visitors can watch the sky above them change colors on the restaurant patio while listening to live music. These nights, featuring different musicians each week, draw both hotel guests and town locals.

The future of Jacumba Hot Springs

Beyond the hotel itself, guests can also venture into the small town. The main attraction is the lake, which has been restored from a dumping ground to its full glory. The trio said they brought in an Indigenous restoration organization to help them identify and remove invasive plants and find native plants to bring back. Sturkel said that a Kumeyaay elder gave a blessing. The hotel now offers kayaks and canoes for anyone to use.

The three partners are working to revitalize the main street by renting business spaces to artisans who make their own products. So far, they have rented one space to locals for an apothecary and hat shop.

After a long day, guests can return to their hotel rooms, which range from 20 guest rooms, two suites and three off-site casitas.

The guest rooms feature handmade tiles, lighting and furniture from Mexico and Morocco, and shower walls inset with bottles that reference bottle walls common in desert communities. Each room has a record player and collection, including a custom record recorded and cut by Strukel’s husband, David Lampley. Local artwork made of horsehair, hanging above the beds, pays homage to the native wild horses of the area.

Currently, the guest rooms are priced at around $180 per night, with the suites at $400 per night. The price of rooms vary from weekdays to the weekend, as well as depending on the season. Spring and fall are their high seasons, while winter is recently gaining popularity. Visitors can also purchase day passes to use the pool.

“The fact that we’ve gotten to where we’re at is really incredible,” Strukel said. “I don’t think that another combination of three people could have done this particular project as well, and as carefully and thoughtfully, as the three of us.”