COACHELLA VALLEY
The Coachella Valley is an arid
rift valley in the Colorado
Desert of Southern California in
Riverside County. The valley may
also be referred to as Greater
Palm Springs and the Palm
Springs Area due to the
prominence of the city of Palm
Springs and disagreement over
the name Coachella. The valley
extends approximately 45 mi (72
km) southeast from the San
Gorgonio Pass to the northern
shore of the Salton Sea and the
neighboring Imperial Valley, and
is approximately 15 mi (24 km)
wide along most of its length.
It is bounded on the northeast
by the San Bernardino and Little
San Bernardino Mountains, and on
the southwest by the San Jacinto
and Santa Rosa Mountains.
The valley is notable as the
location of several wintertime
resort cities, especially Palm
Springs, that have become
popular destinations for
snowbirds. The valley is also
known for a number of annual
events, including the Coachella
Valley Music and Arts Festival,
the Stagecoach Country Music
Festival, and the Riverside
County Fair and National Date
Festival, all held in Indio.
Other events include the Palm
Springs Modernism Week, Palm
Springs International Film
Festival, the ANA Inspiration
and Desert Classic golf
tournaments, and the Indian
Wells Masters tennis tournament.
In addition to Palm Springs, the
valley is home to the cities of
Cathedral City, Indian Wells,
Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert,
and Rancho Mirage.
Summers in the valley are
extremely hot and valley winters
are mild. As such, the valley's
population tends to fluctuate;
from nearly 500,000 in April, to
around 300,000 in July and
August, to around 600,000 by
January.[citation needed] It was
estimated in 2013 that 3.5
million conventioneers and
tourists visit the valley each
year.
The Coachella Valley connects
with the Greater Los Angeles
area to the west via the San
Gorgonio Pass, a major
transportation corridor,
traversed by Interstate 10 and
by the Union Pacific Railroad.
The Coachella Valley is
sometimes called the Desert
Empire to differentiate it from
the broader Inland Empire.
History
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The area had been surveyed by
Edward Fitzgerald Beale in 1857,
whose survey party used camels
to cross the desert, primarily
along the path of the historic
Bradshaw Trail. It was not until
the coming of the Southern
Pacific Railroad and the
discovery of abundant artesian
wells later in the 19th century
that the area began to expand.
The coming in 1926 of U.S. Route
99 northward through Coachella
and Indio and westward toward
Los Angeles, more or less along
the present route of Interstate
10, helped further open
agriculture, commerce and
tourism to the rest of the
country. So too did the coming
of State Highway 111 in the
early 1930s, which cut a
diagonal swath through the
valley and connected all of its
major settlements. Dr. June
McCarroll, then a nurse with the
Southern Pacific whose office
fronted U.S. 99 in Indio, is
credited with being the first
person to delineate a divided
highway by painting a stripe
down the middle of the roadbed
in response to frequent head-on
collisions.[citation needed] The
standard was refined and adopted
worldwide. Doctor McCarroll is
memorialized by a stretch of
I-10 through Indio named in her
honor
The Coachella Valley became
popular among celebrities from
Frank Sinatra to Dakota Fanning
who came to enjoy vacations and
winter homes in the desert
resort community. It became a
real estate destination in the
1980s and 1990s[citation needed]
and has also become a tourist
attraction.
Geography
The Coachella Valley is the
northernmost extent of the vast
Salton Trough, also called the
Cahuilla Basin, which includes
the Salton Sea, and the Imperial
Valley in the United States, as
well as the Mexicali Valley and
Colorado River Delta in Mexico.
The trough is a result of
combined tectonic activity of
the San Andreas Fault, which
follows the northeastern side of
the valley, and the East Pacific
Rise that runs up through the
Gulf of California to the Salton
Sea.
Panorama of the view south from
Keys View in the Little San
Bernardino Mountains, Joshua
Tree National Park, California,
United States. Visible landmarks
are the Salton Sea, 230 feet (70
m) below sea level at rear left,
along towards the center the
Santa Rosa Mountains behind
Indio and the San Jacinto
Mountains behind Palm Springs.
In the valley floor, the San
Andreas Fault is clearly
visible. At the rear right is
the 11,500-foot tall (3,500 m)
San Gorgonio Mountain.
The area is surrounded on the
southwest by the Santa Rosa
Mountains, by the San Jacinto
Mountains to the west, the
Little San Bernardino Mountains
to the east and San Gorgonio
Mountain to the north. These
mountains peak at around 11,000
feet (3,400 m) and tend to
average between 5,000 and 7,000
feet (1,500 and 2,100 m).
Elevations on the Valley floor
range from 1,600 feet (490 m)
above sea level at the north end
of the Valley to 250 feet (76 m)
below sea level around Mecca.
The San Andreas Fault traverses
the Valley's east side. Because
of this fault, the Valley has
many hot springs. The Santa Rosa
Mountains to the West are part
of the Elsinore Fault Zone. The
results of a prehistoric
sturzstrom can be seen in
Martinez Canyon. The Painted
Canyons of Mecca feature smaller
faults as well as Precambrian,
Tertiary and Quaternary rock
formations, unconformities,
badlands and desert landforms.
Fault lines cause hot water
springs or geysers to rise from
the ground. These natural water
sources made habitation and
development possible in the
otherwise inhospitable desert
environment of the Coachella
Valley. Major earthquakes have
affected the Coachella Valley.
For instance, the 1992 Landers
earthquake caused some damage in
the valley. An earthquake of
local origin which caused
considerable damage was the 1986
North Palm Springs earthquake,
which registered at a magnitude
of 6.0, injuring 29 people and
destroying 51 homes.
Climate
In the summer months daytime
temperatures range from 104 °F
(40 °C) to 112 °F (44 °C) and
nighttime lows from 75 °F (24
°C) to 86 °F (30 °C). During
winter, the daytime temperatures
range from 68 °F (20 °C) to 88
°F (31 °C) and corresponding
nights range from 46 °F (8 °C)
to 65 °F (18 °C) making it a
popular winter resort
destination. The surrounding
mountains create Thermal Belts
in the immediate foothills of
the Coachella Valley, leading to
higher night-time temperatures
in the winter months, and lower
daytime temps during the summer
months. Due to its warm
year-round climate the region's
agricultural sector produces
fruits such as mangoes, figs and
dates.
The Valley is the northwestern
extension of the Sonoran Desert
to the southeast, and as such,
is extremely arid. Most
precipitation falls during the
winter months from passing
mid-latitude frontal systems
from the north and west, nearly
all of it as rain, but with snow
atop the surrounding mountains.
Rain also falls during the
summer months as surges of
moisture from both the Gulf of
Mexico and the Gulf of
California are drawn into the
area by the desert monsoon.
Occasionally, the remnants of a
Pacific tropical cyclone can
also affect the valley. In 1976,
Tropical Storm Kathleen brought
torrential rain and catastrophic
flooding to the Coachella Valley
as it swept in from the Pacific,
traversing the region from south
to north. A haboob powerful
enough to have a significant
impact on the Coachella Valley
can happen every two years.
This desert environment hosts a
variety of flora and fauna,
including the endangered
California Fan Palm,
Washingtonia filifera, Bighorn
sheep inhabit the Santa Rosa and
San Jacinto mountain ranges, and
the fringe-toed lizard, an
indigenous desert reptile whose
numbers are increasing under the
U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Desert wildlife in the Coachella
Valley includes localized
subspecies of ants, bats,
beetles, blackbirds, bobcats,
coyotes, diamondbacks, fleas,
foxes, gnats, gophers, hawks,
horseflies, jackrabbits,
kangaroo rats, mosquitoes,
mountain lions, pigeons, quails,
rattlesnakes, ravens, roaches,
roadrunners, scorpions, spiders,
termites, ticks, vipers, wasps,
whip scorpions or "vinegaroons",
and wildcats.
POPULATION
As a retirement haven throughout
the area's history, a large
percentage of residents are age
65 or older. The valley has some
of the densest concentrations of
senior citizens in California
with three of California’s
cities with the highest
percentages of residents age 65
and older: Indian Wells, Rancho
Mirage, and Palm Desert. Though
the area is somewhat politically
conservative, it is nevertheless
renowned for being a community
that is known for its inclusion
of gays and lesbians as part of
a diverse community.[citation
needed] Current estimates are
that up to 33% of Palm Springs'
residents identify as gay and
lesbian. Cathedral City is also
home to a number of gay resorts,
bars, restaurants and clubs.
Many establishments along a
stretch of Arenas Road in
downtown Palm Springs are
gay-oriented and serve as the
center of the annual White
Party. According to an interview
with former Palm Springs mayor
Ron Oden, perhaps at the time
the United States' only openly
gay African-American mayor, a
large number of people living
with HIV (PWH) have moved to the
Palm Springs area to take
advantage of the extensive
health-support systems that have
been developed in recent years
(such as DAP Health). For this
reason, the area has one of the
highest per capita rates of HIV
in the nation.
The area has a large percentage
of Mexican American political
figures, plus the state assembly
representative Bonnie Garcia of
La Quinta is of Puerto Rican
parentage.
The Coachella Valley was settled
by a diverse array of races and
ethnicities. Once viewed as
predominantly Caucasian, the
Coachella Valley has features of
a diverse history. As of 2004,
the Claritas study found that
373,100 people resided in the
region. The racial makeup was
44.7% Non-Hispanic White, 49.9%
Hispanic, 1.8% Black/African
American, 2.1% Asian/Pacific
Islander, 0.4% American Indian
and Inuit, 0.1% from other
races, and 1.1% from two or more
races.
Early History
In the early 20th century, less
than 1,000 full-time residents
lived in the "village" of Palm
Springs, surrounding farms and
ranches, and on the Indian
reservation. The 1930 U.S.
census found less than half the
Coachella Valley's population
was "white", the rest were
Mexicans especially in the
eastern ends when traqueros
arrived to maintain the area's
railroads, and Native Americans
of local tribes in what were
then impoverished reservations.
Starting in the 1890s, there was
a large Irish and Scottish
presence in the region, after
Palm Springs was an established
agricultural colony called "Palm
Valley" cofounded by Welwood
Murray, a Scottish immigrant and
John Guthrie McCallum, an
American from the U.S. East
coast. The two men widely
advertised the colony to
settlers with an interest in a
warm climate and the ideal
winter residence.
Hispanic Community
Hispanic Americans are long
established in Palm Springs'
central and eastern sections,
and have constituted the
majority of the populations of
Indio and Coachella for many
decades. In the 2000 U.S.
census, about 35 percent of
Coachella Valley residents were
Latino. But according to the
United States Hispanic Chamber
of Commerce, an estimated half
(50–60 percent) of the residents
are Latino. A large portion of
Latinos moving into the area are
from the Los Angeles-Orange
County and San Diego metro
areas.[citation needed]
Most of the valley's Hispanics
are Mexican from a
multi-generational community
(see Chicano), but Central
American immigrants (especially
in Indio and Cathedral City),
Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans,
and South Americans are also
numerous (esp. in Rancho Mirage
and Palm Desert). Since the late
1980s, the large wave of
immigration from neighboring
Mexico has culturally impacted
the Coachella Valley in many
more ways than the rest of
California or the country, but
the national trend slowed down
due to the late 2000s recession.
Most Hispanic immigrants came to
obtain work in the area's
year-round agriculture, but
today many find employment in
construction and home
remodeling, the resort
hospitality industry,
landscaping firms, and in the
retail sector.
Other racial/ethnic groups
The prominence of Native
Americans of the Cahuilla tribe
is represented in local life;
because of casino gambling and
land ownership, the majority of
local tribal members (Cahuilla
pertaining to the Agua Caliente
band and the Cabazon/Twentynine
Palms bands) are in upper-income
brackets. According to the
Southern California National
Congress of American Indians,
less than 5 percent of the
area's residents are Native
Americans.
African Americans are
concentrated in Palm Springs'
northern and eastern ends, as
well as in small sections of
Indio and Desert Hot Springs,
but local African Americans live
everywhere in middle-class and
wealthy areas and comprise less
than 5 percent of the local
population. The area is home to
10,000 Indian Americans (mostly
from Sri Lanka), descendants of
agricultural workers in the
1930s and 1940s. Additionally,
Palm Desert is the home of 1,000
Tahitians, a Pacific Islander
people from French Polynesia.
Other ethnic groups in the area
like Asian Americans (i.e.
Chinese, Japanese and
Filipinos), followed by a small
wave of Armenians and Arabs
(esp. Lebanese and Syrians) from
the Middle East were involved in
the area's agriculture in the
early 1900s. In recent years,
the area (especially Palm Desert
and Palm Springs) became popular
for Iranian, Israeli, East
Indian, Yugoslav (Former) and
Korean home buyers, with most
purchasing increasingly
high-valued properties for
investment purposes.
Communities and Population
The Coachella Valley contains
nine cities and various
unincorporated communities.
City Population
(2020 census)
Cathedral City 51,493
Coachella 41,941
Desert Hot Springs 32,512
Indian Wells 4,757
Indio 89,137
La Quinta 37,558
Palm Desert 51,163
Palm Springs 44,575
Rancho Mirage 16,999
Cities Total 370,135
The incorporated cities of the
Coachella Valley had a
population of approximately
370,000 at the 2020 Census.
State projections estimate that
the valley's population will
pass 1 million by 2066.
Demographers believe the total
population already surpassed the
500,000 mark, plus 100,000
temporary seasonal residents
known as "snowbirds" arriving to
stay during the winter months
(from the end of October to the
end of April).
The city of Palm Springs sits at
the northwest end of the valley.
Unincorporated areas and towns
include Cabazon in the San
Gorgonio Pass, and Bermuda Dunes
and Thousand Palms in the east
end of the valley with Indio
Hills, Sky Valley, North Palm
Springs and Garnet along the
northern rim along with Thermal,
Vista Santa Rosa, Oasis and
Mecca to the southeast. The
native Cahuilla tribe
represented in the Cabazon Band
of Mission Indians, Twentynine
Palms Band of Mission Indians,
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla
Indians and the Torres-Martinez
Band of Cahuilla Indians, the
Mission Creek Band in
unincorporated Painted Hills,
and the Santa Rosa Indian
Reservation south of Palm
Desert, each have reservations
in the area.
Economy
Agriculture
The irrigation of over 100,000
acres (40,500 ha) of the Valley
since the early 20th century has
allowed widespread agriculture.
In its 2006 annual report, the
Coachella Valley Water District
listed the year's total crop
value at over $576 million or
almost $12,000 per acre. As of
2010 the valley produced
agricultural products worth
about $600 million.
The valley is the primary
date-growing region in the
United States, responsible for
nearly 95 percent of the
nation's crop and is celebrated
each year in Indio during the
Riverside County Fair and
National Date Festival. The
earliest attempt at growing
dates came about in 1890 when
the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) imported date
palm shoots from Iraq and Egypt.
Sixty-eight shoots were
distributed across the Southwest
U.S. in Las Cruces, New Mexico,
Yuma, Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona,
and several California cites:
Indio, Pomona near Los Angeles,
Tulare and National City near
San Diego. The imports were
almost all male seedlings and
produced poor fruit. The
Coachella Valley showed promise,
so USDA horticulturist Bernard
Johnson planted a number of
shoots that he brought back from
Algeria in September 1903. On
his own initiative, Johnson
imported more shoots from
Algeria in 1908 and again in
1912. The area's entire date
industry can be traced back to
those original USDA experiments
near present-day Mecca. Date
palms were grown from
present-day Cathedral City to
the Salton Sea, but most date
groves were overtaken by
development by the 1990s. Today
nearly all of the date groves
are in the "East Valley" area
south of Indio, near Coachella
and east of La Quinta.
Other agricultural products
cultivated in the Coachella
Valley include fruits and
vegetables, especially table
grapes, citrus fruits such as
lemons, limes, oranges and
grapefruit; onions and leeks;
and peppers. The valley floor
served to grow bounties of
alfalfa, artichokes, avocados,
beans, beets, cabbage, carrots,
corn, cotton, cucumbers,
dandelions (salad greens),
eggplant, figs, grains (i.e.
barley, oats, rye and wheat;
plus rice fields kept wet or
moist in the Salton Sea area),
hops, kohlrabi, lettuce,
mangoes, nectarines and peaches,
persimmons, plums and prunes,
pomegranate, potatoes, radishes,
spinach, strawberries, sugar
cane, tomatoes, a variety of
herbs and spices, and other
vegetable crops. The Coachella
grapefruit originated in the
region. The city of Coachella is
the primary shipping point for
agricultural goods. Domesticated
grasses, flowers and trees are
widely grown for warm-weather or
desert climates, and sold for
use in golf courses and
landscape.
Only 10 percent of the Coachella
Valley residents were
born/raised in the area,
according to the 2000 census, a
much lower percentage than found
in most parts of the U.S.
Agriculture is a founding block
of the majority of the residents
whose parents and grandparents
came to the area as farmers and
laborers transformed the eastern
parts of the valley from a hot
sandy desert into a fertile
place with a year-round growing
season. The Coachella Valley's
agricultural development is due
to irrigation: water was drawn
from an underground aquifer
created when the valley was
under a fresh water lake in the
last ice age (over 10,000 years
ago); and from the Coachella
Canal, a concrete-lined aqueduct
built between 1938 and 1948 as a
branch of the All-American
Canal, which brings water from
the Colorado River to the
Valley. The Colorado River
Aqueduct, which provides
drinking water to Los Angeles
and San Diego, crosses the
northeast end of the Valley
along the base of the Little San
Bernardino Mountains (the Joshua
Tree National Park). Recent
growth of fish farming or
aquaculture in Mecca near the
Salton Sea brings new promise to
the local economy, especially to
efforts to restore the ailing
ecology of the large saltwater
lake.
Wind Power
The San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm
as viewed from the top of the
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in
the San Jacinto Mountains to the
south
The valley's northwest entrance
from the San
Bernardino-Riverside along
Interstate 10 is known as the
San Gorgonio Pass and is the
second windiest place in the
country. Cool coastal air is
forced through the pass and
mixes with the hot desert air,
making the San Gorgonio Pass one
of only three ideal places in
California for steady,
wind-generated electricity. At
the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm,
thousands of huge wind turbines
spread across the desert and
hills on either side of the
highway greet visitors as they
approach the crest of the pass
and have become somewhat of a
symbol of the area. The state's
other wind farms are in the
Tehachapi Pass between Mojave
and Bakersfield and in the
Altamont Pass near Livermore.
Businesses
Siemens Water Technologies, Palm
Desert – manufacturer of
industrial water filtration
systems.
Guthy-Renker, Palm Desert –
producer of mail order
infomercials.
Ernie Ball, manufacturer of
electric guitar strings, opened
a manufacturing facility in
Coachella in 2005.
Shields Date Gardens, date
producer – a local landmark and
tourist attraction since 1924.
Coca-Cola bottling plant
facility in Coachella – opened
in 2009 and employs 1,000
people.
Eisenhower Medical Center,
opened in 1971, is a 540-bed
hospital with in-patient
facilities, emergency
department, and out-patient
clinics and urgent care centers.
Eisenhower employs approximately
2800 people.
Recreation and annual activities
With warm winters and more than
350 days of sunshine per year,
recreational hiking and
horseback riding are popular in
the many canyons in the
mountains that surround the
valley. One of the most visited
outdoor sports areas is Thousand
Palms Canyon.
The Coachella Valley was once a
safe haven for hay fever allergy
sufferers before the surge of
golf courses and year-round
lawns, and people with
bronchitis, emphysema and asthma
chose to relocate for health
reasons in the early half of the
20th century.
In the early 20th century, Palm
Springs was an ideal farming
town and had some space
converted to a minor
agricultural economy. After that
failed, all the fields and
groves were replaced by homes
and golf courses. Agriculture
succeeded in the lower Coachella
Valley near the communities of
Thermal, Mecca, Oasis and Vista
Santa Rosa that had a large
underground aquifer to sustain a
year-round green environment.
Roughly 125 golf courses blanket
the area, making it one of the
world's premier golf
destinations and the most
popular golf vacation
destination in California. The
Merrill Lynch Skins Game was
held in La Quinta each
Thanksgiving and drew some of
the biggest names in golf. The
PGA has a major presence in La
Quinta as well with the PGA WEST
golf and residential complex.
One of the host courses of the
aforementioned Bob Hope Chrysler
Classic, a PGA WEST fairway
represents the area in Soarin'
Over California, an IMAX-based
attraction at Disney California
Adventure Park theme park.
The area is also dotted with
casinos run by local Indian
tribes as well as resort hotels
and spas with natural mineral
water wells, making it a
vacation destination as well.
The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
takes visitors from the valley
floor to the San Jacinto Peak
mountain station 8,516 feet
(2,596 m) above sea level.
Palm Springs is home to one of
the country's largest
collections of mid-century
architecture. Thousands of
homes, apartments, hotels,
businesses and other buildings
were designed in this fashion
across the city. International
mid-century enthusiasts come to
Palm Springs to admire the
design.
Events, activities and
attractions
Changing exhibits of sculptures
can be found along El Paseo
Drive in Palm Desert.
Palm Springs has the annual Palm
Springs International Film
Festival every January and the
Palm Springs International Short
Film Festival (or ShortFest)
held in June, at the Palm
Springs Cultural Center.
The Indian Wells Tennis Garden,
opened in 2000, hosts the BNP
Paribas Open tennis tournament
annually in March.
Each February, Indio hosts the
Riverside County Fair and
National Date Festival. Indio is
also the site of the annual
Coachella Valley Music and Arts
Festival, a multi-genre music
concert venue in the Empire Polo
Ground, recognized as one of the
nation's premiere music
festivals for its high-profile
acts and scenic beauty.
Visitors see desert nature at
the nearby Joshua Tree National
Park and the Sand to Snow
National Monument to the north,
the Santa Rosa Mountains to the
south and Mt. San Jacinto Aerial
Tram to the west. The Living
Desert Zoo and Gardens is
located in Palm Desert and has a
collection of animals mostly
from North America and Africa
and hosts the annual Wild Lights
Christmas light display.[40]
The Coachella Valley History
Museum in Indio[41] is devoted
to the preservation and
interpretation of the Coachella
Valley's historical artifacts.
Media
The Coachella Valley, under the
title "Palm Springs", is a
distinct Nielsen and Arbitron
ratings market, with eight local
television stations and twenty
radio stations. The first
television station in the
Coachella Valley is KMIR channel
6 by John Conte and Bob Hope,
the NBC affiliate premiered in
1968 remains on the air as the
desert's longest running TV
station. KPLM (which later
became KESQ, the Coachella
Valley's current ABC affiliate)
went on the air later with a
party that made national
headlines; it was founded by
Robert E. Leonard. The station
later made national news and
garnered late night jokes from
Johnny Carson and Bob Newhart
when the station manager
accidentally ran on air a
pornographic movie. Gun TV, the
gun shopping channel, was
headquartered in the Valley.
Cable subscribers under Charter
Spectrum cable can receive some
Los Angeles area television
channels as part of basic cable
service. Satellite television
and satellite radio are
available as well. The eastern
Coachella Valley can receive
Mexican television from
Mexicali, 90 miles (140 km)
away.
The Gannett Company-owned The
Desert Sun is the local daily
newspaper; the Los Angeles Times
and the Riverside
Press-Enterprise is also sold
there (Gannett also operates the
Desert Post Weekly). The Desert
Valley Star Weekly is an
independent community weekly
that covers the Coachella
Valley, and the Desert
Entertainer is a calendar-type
entertainment weekly produced by
Hi-Desert Publishing. The area's
city magazine, Palm Springs Life
caters to the valley's rich and
famous elites, while The Sun
Runner Magazine covers the
California desert region,
including the Coachella Valley.
Palm Springs Art Patron Magazine
covers the Art community of the
Desert. A number of periodicals
cover the area's LGBT community,
including In Magazine.
An alternative news and
entertainment publication, the
Coachella Valley Independent,
was founded online in late 2012.
It is currently in print as a
monthly publication. Another
independent publication is
Coachella Valley Weekly, which
is printed weekly and was also
founded in 2012. The Coachella
Valley also has a Coachella
Valley Art Scene Blog for the
younger community.
The Coachella Valley is served
by the following utilities:
Electricity
Southern California Edison
(serves Palm Desert, Palm
Springs, Rancho Mirage, Desert
Hot Springs, and Cathedral City)
Imperial Irrigation District
(serves La Quinta, Indio,
Thousand Palms, Indian Wells,
and Coachella)
Natural gas
Southern California Gas Company
Transportation
Aviation in the area is served
by the Palm Springs
International Airport in Palm
Springs, Jacqueline Cochran
Regional Airport in Thermal and
Bermuda Dunes Municipal Airport
in Bermuda Dunes. Interstate 10
runs along the northeastern rim
of the valley while State Route
111 runs for about 30 miles
along the southwestern rim of
the valley and serves as the
main arterial highway between
almost all Coachella Valley
cities. A four-lane expressway
now known as State Highway 86
opened in the early 1990s as a
"special" bypass (hence, it was
known as State Highway 86S until
the "S" suffix was dropped) of
the former two-lane portion of
Highway 86. Historic signs
designating the original route
of U.S. Route 99 through the
area may be found along
present-day Indio Boulevard
through Indio and Harrison
Street through Coachella.
Public transportation in the
valley is provided by the
SunLine Transit Agency based in
Thousand Palms, which was among
the country's first transit
agencies to totally convert to
alternate fuel vehicles,
including full-sized buses
powered by fuel cells.
The Palm Springs Airport
provides service to many North
American destinations. Amtrak
trains serve North Palm Springs
and its coaches provide a
connection to Metrolink Los
Angeles regional commuter rail
at Moreno Valley station.
Greyhound buses link the Valley
with the Los Angeles
metropolitan area, Calexico on
the Mexican border, and points
east.
Notable people
See also: List of people from
Palm Springs, California and
Palm Springs Walk of Stars
The area has been a magnet for
Hollywood stars since the 1930s
when Charles Farrell and Ralph
Bellamy founded the Racquet Club
of Palm Springs. Bing Crosby
would later found the Blue Skies
Trailer Park in Rancho Mirage,
unique for its expensive trailer
homes each with its own
individual theme. In the
mid-century celebrities known to
stop by Palm Springs included
Humphrey Bogart, John Barrymore,
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Mary
Pickford, Judy Garland, Fred
Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Jack
Benny, who did numerous
broadcasts of his radio show
from Palm Springs.
Farrell, after whom a street in
Palm Springs is named, would
later be elected mayor. Farrell
Drive is built on the path of
the Palmdale Railroad, a
narrow-gauge horse-drawn
railroad right-of-way originally
built to serve the proposed town
of Palmdale. The town was never
built and the railroad was
abandoned after a few years of
operation. The ties were used to
build one of the area's earliest
residences and the Cornelia
White House still stands today
in downtown Palm Springs.
Medal of Honor recipient Captain
William McGonagle was a graduate
of Coachella High School and
made the valley his home after
his retirement. Mitchell Paige
was another Medal of Honor
veteran who lived in Palm Desert
and has a middle school in La
Quinta named after him.
Jacqueline Cochran, founder and
director of the Women Airforce
Service Pilots lived her last
years in Indio. In 2005,
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates
reportedly bought and owns a
home in The Vintage Club Country
Club in Indian Wells.
Elvis Presley honeymooned in
Palm Springs in 1967 and was a
frequent visitor as well since
he owned a home here from 1970
until his death in 1977. Frank
Sinatra, Bob Hope and Dinah
Shore were residents of the
valley and were instrumental in
the creation of three major golf
tournaments, the Frank Sinatra
Celebrity Golf Tournament, Bob
Hope Chrysler Classic (now
hosted by comedian and golf
aficionado George Lopez) and the
LPGA Tour's Nabisco
Championship. All three have
streets named in their honor as
does President Gerald Ford, a
longtime Rancho Mirage resident
and benefactor of the substance
abuse center that bears his
wife's name, the Betty Ford
Center on the campus of the
Eisenhower Medical Center, named
for general, U.S. president and
part-time resident Dwight
Eisenhower. The medical center
expanded in size by the new
Walter Annenberg building named
for the valley resident,
billionaire, friend of
celebrities and
philanthropist.[citation needed]
Sinatra and his friends,
including Dean Martin, Perry
Como, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis
Jr., Rosemary Clooney and Connie
Francis were frequent visitors
in the close-knit celebrity
community of the Coachella
Valley in the 1950s and 1960s.
The main road into Palm Springs
International Airport, named
simply "Airport Road", was
renamed Kirk Douglas Way on
October 17, 2004. Douglas, a
major area benefactor, lived in
the valley for more than fifty
years and is credited with
spearheading the drive to
modernize the area over those
five decades. His son, actor
Michael Douglas, is said to own
a residence in Palm Springs with
his wife, actress Catherine
Zeta-Jones.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were
instrumental in forming the
exclusive Thunderbird Heights
tract in Rancho Mirage, once the
home of President Gerald Ford
and his wife Betty. According to
Palm Springs Life magazine, that
same tract inspired the name in
late 1954 for the Ford
Thunderbird. The magazine
incorrectly cites that a
favorite vacation spot for
General Motors executives, Palm
Desert's Eldorado Country Club,
inspired the name for Cadillac's
top model the year before —
though Cadillac had chosen the
name five years before the
club's founding in an internal
competition. Local automotive
history indicates that designer
Raymond Loewy penned the
Studebaker Avanti in his Palm
Springs home. Especially since
the 1950s, Palm Springs and
nearby golf clubs are hailed as
the "playground of celebrities".
However it is said that
celebrities travel or reside in
the Palm Springs area in lesser
numbers as compared to
yesteryear, but the area's "star
power" made a comeback in the
2000s.
Ball and Arnaz helped finance
construction of the Indian Wells
Country Club. Founded in 1956
with their winter residence on
DesiLu Court, Indian Wells
became a major factor in "down
valley" growth in the 1970s and
1980s. A mostly gated community,
Indian Wells has one of the
highest per capita income of any
small town in the United States,
while nearby Coachella, a short
distance southeast on State
Route 111 is the third poorest
city of the 10,000–50,000
population range in the nation,
though that is rapidly changing
as the area develops. A memorial
to Eisenhower can be found on
the front lawn of Indian Wells
City Hall, also features the
local veterans memorial plaque
to represent the community's 800
veterans, a high number of war
veterans per ratio of its
predominantly senior citizen
population. Coachella has the
Vietnam War veterans' memorial
to represent their community's
high representation of armed
forces volunteers, a large
percentage had Spanish surnames
since the city's population are
over 90 percent Latino.
Many other celebrities, past and
present, have called the area
home such as actor Paul Burke.
Among those who grew up in the
area:
Vanessa Marcil is a La Quinta
native and attended Indio High
School.
Suzanne Somers spent a part of
her childhood in Cathedral City
and attended Palm Springs High
School.
Billy Steinberg grew up in Palm
Springs and worked at the Dave
Freedman Grape Farm in Thermal.
Alison Lohman is a native of
Palm Springs and grew up in Palm
Desert.
Tyler Hilton is also a native of
Palm Springs and graduated from
La Quinta High School. Hilton
performed a concert in the
school theatre in 2006.
Cameron Crowe grew up in a rural
home near Indio.
Rich Newey grew up in Bermuda
Dunes.
Alan O'Day grew up in Coachella.
Aubrey O'Day was a 2001 graduate
of La Quinta High School.
Josh Homme attended Palm Desert
High School.
Tony Reagins, General Manager of
the Los Angeles Angels of
Anaheim, is an Indio native and
attended Indio High school.
Edward White, football player of
the San Diego Chargers and
Minnesota Vikings is an Indio
native and attended Indio High
school.
Jenna Ortega is a native of
Indio.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy
was a frequent guest of Frank
Sinatra, and a plaque in one of
the pews of Sacred Heart
Catholic Church in Palm Desert
marks the spot where Kennedy
would usually sit during Mass.
That same area in Palm Desert
once served as a training ground
for General George Patton's
Third Army troops and tank
battalions; today, the site is
home to the El Paseo shopping
district. Patton also trained in
a huge plot of desert stretching
from Chiriaco Summit just off
the eastern end of the valley
northward almost to Amboy along
U.S. Route 66 in the Mojave
Desert. Tank tracks from those
maneuvers are still visible
today in the open desert and a
museum dedicated to Patton is
located in Chiriaco Summit.
Patton was also a frequent guest
at the Whittier Ranch House in
Indio, a grand adobe structure
which had faced the possibility
of demolition as the ranch lands
surrounding it were being
developed. A grass roots
organization had petitioned the
city to preserve the structure
for use as a VFW post; it has
instead been restored and
retained as the clubhouse for
the new Whittier Ranch housing
development. It is also now a
California state historic site.
Sonny Bono ran a restaurant in
downtown Palm Springs.
Frustrated by the lack of
cooperation he faced from the
city council over a new sign for
the restaurant, the entertainer
took matters into his own hands
and ran for mayor. He retained
local conservative talk radio
host Marshall Gilbert (heard
regularly on KNWQ) as his
campaign manager in a successful
bid that not only put Bono back
in the public eye, but fueled
his later campaign for a seat on
the United States Congress, a
position he held until his death
in a skiing accident in 1998.
His widow, Mary (now Mary Bono
Mack), filled the vacancy left
by her husband and later
campaigned successfully on her
own. She was defeated by
Democrat Raul Ruiz in the 2012
election, and moved to Florida.
Both Sonny Bono and Frank
Sinatra are buried at Desert
Memorial Park in Cathedral City.
The La Quinta Resort and Club, a
series of bungalows built in
1926 in what was then known as
Marshall's Cove is the oldest
resort in the valley. Frank
Capra wrote the script for 1937
Lost Horizon poolside there, in
the La Quinta Cove where the
resort is located. Capra died in
La Quinta and is buried in the
nearby Coachella Valley Public
Cemetery.
So fond was Walt Disney of his
property at the Smoke Tree Ranch
in Palm Springs that he often
wore a tie tac which was in the
shape of the Smoke Tree Ranch
logo. Disney reluctantly sold
the property to help finance the
construction of Disneyland.
Partners, bronze sculptures of
Disney standing next to Mickey
Mouse in each of the Disney
theme parks clearly show the
brand on Disney's tie tac.
Clint Eastwood formerly owned a
restaurant called the Hog's
Breath Inn in Old Town La
Quinta. The restaurant is
currently owned by the Kaiser
Restaurant Group, but maintains
the Clint Eastwood inspired
motif.
TV producer and media mogul Merv
Griffin owned a home and ranch
which is now part of the PGA
West community. It was known as
the "Griffin Ranch", but the
land was sold and became an
equestrian ranch housing tract
and was annexed by the city of
La Quinta.
In popular culture
Main article: Palm Springs in
popular culture
Noteworthy and memorable
references in popular culture
include the animated Looney
Tunes short Bully for Bugs in
which Bugs Bunny requests
directions to the Coachella
Valley "and the big carrot
festival therein." An annual
carrot festival is in fact held
just outside the area in the
Imperial County town of
Holtville, approximately 70
miles to the southeast.
The generation-defining novel
Generation X: Tales for an
Accelerated Culture, by Canadian
novelist Douglas Coupland,
describes the angst of those
born between roughly 1960 and
1965 (Generation X-ers refers to
those born from 1960 to 1982)
and is set in the Palm Springs
of the late 1980s.
A second classic 1980s novel,
Less than Zero, a tale of
disaffected, rich teenagers of
Los Angeles, has its climactic
scenes of excess and despair set
in Palm Springs. The film Less
than Zero was made in 1987,
directed by Marek Kanievska and
starring Andrew McCarthy, Robert
Downey Jr. and Jami Gertz.
Another famous movie filmed in
the Coachella Valley (as well as
Yucca Valley and Twentynine
Palms, to the north) is arguably
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
It even includes the former
Desert Air airport, now the site
of the Rancho Las Palmas Resort
and Spa in Rancho Mirage. The
airfield escape scene in A Night
in Casablanca was filmed at
present-day Palm Springs
International Airport; Mount San
Jacinto is clearly seen in the
background.
Most of Robert Altman's 1977
avant-garde drama 3 Women was
shot in the geographical region
surrounding Coachella Valley.
Tex Avery made a brief reference
to Palm Springs via a sight gag
in his 1948 animated short for
MGM, The Cat That Hated People.
In the showroom of the "Moonbeam
Rocket Company", a tiny rocket
ship with a sign showing its
intended destination of Palm
Springs is shown among a series
of large rockets also displaying
signs indicating not terrestrial
but rather their galactic
destinations.
The early 1960s would see the
movie Palm Springs Weekend
filmed on location. A humorous
situation involving four drunk
LAPD policemen in a rented
aircraft attempting to reclaim a
Palm Springs golf course in the
name of the local Indian tribes
can be found in the 1975 novel,
The Choirboys.
An episode of The Rocky and
Bullwinkle Show titled "The Ruby
Yacht of Omar Khayyam" announces
the upcoming second installment
of the episode as "Rimsky &
Korsakov Go to Palm Springs, or
Song of Indio".
In the 1984 music video by Tears
for Fears' Everybody Wants to
Rule the World was shot on
location in the Coachella
Valley. The rock video features
scenes of a few local landmarks:
the dinosaur structures near
Cabazon, the windmill farms,
scenery along Interstate 10 and
state route 111, a scene of two
dancers appear in a gas station
on state route 86, and the
shores of the Salton Sea.
In 1988, "The Race" by Swiss
dance band Yello featured a
fictitious sportscaster talking
about the "thirty-first annual
formula race" in Palm Springs.
While Palm Springs did briefly
host an annual Grand Prix, it
ran for considerably fewer than
thirty-one years.
In the 1990s two television
series shows P.S. I Luv U and
Phenom, the characters and plots
were set in Palm Springs.
In 2006, The CW television
network had a teen drama series
Hidden Palms is set in a gated
desert community near Palm
Springs, although there is a
real Hidden Palms in Palm
Desert. By irony, the real gated
community is adjacent to Palm
Desert High school.
In local Tyler Hilton's song
"When It Comes", he references
Palm Desert's strip of
high-class fashion and dining
singing, "When I'm cruising El
Paseo / In my off-white coup
back '65."
A majority of the 2007 film
Alpha Dog was shot in Palm
Springs.
The helicopter scene in Mission:
Impossible III was filmed in the
windfarm outside of Palm
Springs.
The city was mentioned on an
episode of Comedy Central's Reno
911! by sergeant/lieutenant Jim
(Doug) Dangle, an openly gay
character of the show. He would
hang out in Palm Springs, as
well in San Francisco and West
Hollywood, but he eventually
chose Reno as his hometown.
In an episode of the animated
comedy Family Guy On the Road to
Rhode Island, baby Stewie and
his friend, Brian (a talking
dog) figured a way to return
home from vacation in Lois'
parents home in Palm Springs.
In the game Grand Theft Auto V,
the Coachella Valley area is
represented as Sandy Shores in
the Grand Theft Auto franchise,
and therefore some
characteristics of Coachella
Valley is mirrored in the Sandy
Shores area in the game.
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