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is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 44,282 at the 2000 census. Population was estimated to be 100,173 in 2008, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the state. Largely residential in character, Murrieta is considered a bedroom community, with large numbers of its residents commuting to jobs in San Diego and Orange counties, and the more industrialized neighboring city of Temecula to the south.
Murrieta is bordered by Temecula to the South and the newly incorporated cities of Menifee and Wildomar to the North.
Murrieta should not be confused with Rancho Murieta, which is an unincorporated community in northern California, near Sacramento.
For most of its history, Murrieta was not heavily populated. Its gently rolling hills dotted with native trees such as the now-threatened Engelmann Oak encouraged a Spaniard named Esequial Murrieta to purchase 52,000 acres in the area, intending to bring his sheep raising business to California. Instead, he returned to Spain and turned the land over to his younger brother, Juan Murrieta (1844-1936), who brought 100,000 sheep to the valley in 1873.
Others discovered the beauty of the valley after the construction of a depot in 1882 that connected Murrieta to the Southern California Railroad's transcontinental route. By 1890 some 800 people lived in Murrieta.
It is said that Juan used the natural hot springs to bathe his sheep; eventually the hot springs became a focal point for the town. Murrieta residents capitalized on the springs by developing them into the Murrieta Hot Springs Resort, which attracted visitors from all over the country. Today much of the site (about 50 acres) is home to a Bible college and conference center, owned by Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, which has invested millions of dollars into restoring and rebuilding the old resort rooms.
When the trains stopped in 1935, tourists - the lifeblood of the town - were much harder to come by. The boom that Murrieta had experienced due to the train and the hot springs gradually died, leaving Murrieta as a small country town.
Although US 395 did pass through Murrieta, it wasn't until Interstate 15 was built in the early 1980s that another boom began to take hold. By the late 1980s, suburban neighborhoods were being constructed and people migrated to the Murrieta area from San Diego, Riverside, and Orange Counties and the population grew rapidly.
In 1990, residents began a campaign for cityhood that resulted in the establishing of the City of Murrieta on July 1 1991. By then the population had ballooned from 2,200 in 1980 to 24,000.
Between 1991 and 2007, the city's population skyrocketed to an estimated 97,257.