Stagecoaches transported the gold produced from the Julian mines through Ramona, Lakeside and on to Old Town in San Diego. The Stagecoaches traveled through Descanso. They stopped at Oak Grove Hotel in Descanso to rest the passengers and the horses, hence the Spanish name Descanso. The hotel had a stable, corrals and large livery barn from which the owner leased horse teams to the stage line. Benjamin Arnold, an ivory and silk importer, built the hotel in 1895 to serve the Alpine, Descanso, Cuyamaca stage route he founded. In 1911 the hotel burned down and then was rebuilt on the same site where the present building stands.