24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Jacumba, CA

Jacumba is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in the Mountain Empire area of southeastern San Diego County, sitting right on the Mexican border at about 2,829 feet above sea level.

On February 26, 2013, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved a local petition to officially rename the town from Jacumba to Jacumba Hot Springs.

The Kumeyaay people lived in the area long before settlers arrived, drawn by the warm Jacumba hot spring, whose sulfur water flows at about 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

Violence marked the ranching era: 15 Kumeyaay and one white man died in the Jacumba Massacre of February 27, 1880, an event tied to alleged cattle rustling.

Rail service on the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway reached Jacumba in 1919, and by 1925 the town boasted the world-class Hotel Jacumba; in the 1930s it was a top resort destination with a population of about 1,150 that drew Hollywood celebrities.

In 1951 the entire town — roughly 300 acres with its 65-room hotel, auto court, apartments, shops, houses, water company, and swimming pool — was put up for sale for $400,000 because its owner had grown old.

Jacumba declined after Interstate 8 bypassed it by two miles, and the old Hotel Jacumba burned in an arson fire in 1983; today the renovated Jacumba Hot Springs Spa and Motel, reopened in 2013, carries on the resort tradition.

The 2020 census counted 540 people in Jacumba, down slightly from 561 in 2010, living in 241 households averaging 2.24 people, with about 61% of homes owner-occupied.

Across the border fence lies the small Mexican settlement of Jacume; the unmanned Jacumba–Jacume border crossing was closed in 1995.

Jacumba's valley is dry desert-mountain country with only about 11.8 inches of rain a year, and the town has its own small airfield, Jacumba Airport, with a 2,500-foot runway.