Palm Springs () is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land area. With multiple plots in checkerboard pattern, more than 10% of the city is part of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians reservation land and is the administrative capital of the most populated reservation in California.
The population of Palm Springs was 44,575 as of the 2020 census, but because Palm Springs is a retirement location and a winter snowbird destination, the city's population triples between November and March. The majority of the snowbirds are Canadians.
The city is noted for its mid-century modern architecture, design elements, arts and cultural scene, and recreational activities.
History
Founding
Pre-colonial history The first humans to settle in the area were the Cahuilla people, who arrived 2,000 years ago.Baker, Christopher P. (2008). Explorer's Guide Palm Springs & Desert Resorts: A Great Destination. The Countryman Press. p. 30. .Vechten, Ken Van (2010). Insider's Guide to Palm Springs. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 17; Smolinski, Dick and Craig A. Doherty (1994). The Cahuilla. Rourke Publications. p. 4. Cahuilla Indians lived here in isolation from other cultures for hundreds of years prior to European contact.Palmer, Roger C. (2012). Palm Springs. Arcadia Publishing. p. ix. . They spoke Ivilyuat, which is a Uto-Aztecan language.Gray-Kanatiiosh, Barbara A. (2010). Cahuilla. ABDO Publishing Company. p. 4.
Numerous prominent and powerful Cahuilla leaders were from the area, including Cahuilla Lion (Chief Juan Antonio).Niemann, Greg (2006). Palm Springs Legends: Creation of a Desert Oasis. Sunbelt Publications, Inc. p. 15. . Palm Canyon was occupied during the winter months, but they often moved to cooler Chino Canyon during the summer months.Bean, Lowell L. (1974). Mukat's People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California. University of California Press. p. 71.
The Cahuilla Indians had several permanent settlements in the canyons of Palm Springs due to the abundance of water and shade. Various hot springs were used during wintertime. The Cahuilla hunted rabbit, mountain goat, and quail while trapping fish in nearby lakes and rivers. While men were responsible for hunting, women were responsible for collecting berries, acorns, and seeds. They also made tortillas from mesquite seeds. While the Cahuillas often spent the summers in Indian Canyons, the current site of the former Spa Resort Casino, in downtown, was often used during winter due to its natural hot springs.
Native American petroglyphs can be seen in Tahquitz, Chino, and Indian Canyons. The Cahuilla's irrigation ditches, dams, and house pits can also be seen here.Baker, Christopher P. (2008). Explorer's Guide Palm Springs & Desert Resorts: A Great Destination. The Countryman Press. p. 31. Ancient petroglyphs, pictographs and mortar holes can be seen in Andreas Canyon. The mortar holes were used to grind acorns into meal.Whitley, David S. (1996). A Guide to Rock Art Sites: Southern California and Southern Nevada. Mountain Press Publishing. pp. 94–96. Baker, Christopher P. (2008). Explorer's Guide Palm Springs & Desert Resorts: A Great Destination. The Countryman Press. p. 216.
The Agua Caliente ("Hot Water") Reservation was established in 1876 and consists of . are located by Downtown Palm Springs.Niemann, Greg (2006). Palm Springs Legends: Creation of a Desert Oasis. Sunbelt Publications, Inc., p. 259. The Native American land is on long lease land and next to one of California's high-end communities, making the tribe one of the wealthiest in California.Eargle, Dolan H. (2008). Native California: An Introductory Guide to the Original Peoples From Earliest to Modern Times. Trees Company Press. p. 278.
The first name for Palm Springs was given by the native Cahuilla: "Se-Khi" (boiling water).Wilkerson, Lyn (2009). Slow Travels – California. Lulu Press, Inc. p. 96. Wares, Donna (2008). Great Escapes: Southern California. The Countryman Press. p. 99. When the Agua Caliente Reservation was established by the United States government in 1876, the reservation land was composed of alternating sections () of land laid out across the desert in a checkerboard pattern. The alternating non-reservation sections were granted to the Southern Pacific Railroad as an incentive to bring rail lines through the Sonoran Desert.
A number of streets and areas in Palm Springs are named for Native American notables, including Andreas, Arenas, Amado, Belardo, Lugo, Patencio, Saturnino, and Chino. All of these are common Cahuilla surnames.
Presently the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is composed of several smaller bands who live in the modern-day Coachella Valley and San Gorgonio Pass. The Agua Caliente Reservation occupies , of which lie within the city limits, making the Agua Caliente natives the city's largest landowners. (Tribal enrollment as of 2010 was 410 people.)
Mexican explorers
As of 1821 Mexico was independent of Spain, and in March 1823, the Mexican Monarchy ended. That same year (in December) Mexican diarist José María Estudillo and Brevet Captain José Romero were sent to find a route from Sonora to Alta California; on their expedition, they first recorded the existence of "Agua Caliente" at Palm Springs, California. (here for Table of Contents) With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo after the Mexican-American War, the region became part of the United States in 1848.
Later 19th century
Early names and European settlers One possible origin of palm in the place name comes from early Spanish explorers who referred to the area as La Palma de la Mano de Dios or "The Palm of God's hand". The earliest use of the name "Palm Springs" is from United States Topographical Engineers who used the term in 1853 maps. According to William Bright, when the word "palm" appears in Californian place names, it usually refers to the native California fan palm, Washingtonia filifera, which is abundant in the Palm Springs area. Other early names were "Palmetto Spring" and "Big Palm Springs".
The first European resident in Palm Springs itself was Jack Summers, who ran the stagecoach station on the Bradshaw Trail in 1862. Fourteen years later (1876), the Southern Pacific railroad was laid to the north, isolating the station. In 1880, local Indian Pedro Chino was selling parcels near the springs to William Van Slyke and Mathew Bryne in a series of questionable transactions; they in turn brought in W. R. Porter to help market their property through the "Palm City Land and Water Company". By 1885, when San Francisco attorney (later known as "Judge") John Guthrie McCallum began buying property in Palm Springs, the name was already in wide acceptance. The area was named "Palm Valley" when McCallum incorporated the "Palm Valley Land and Water Company" with partners O.C. Miller, H.C. Campbell, and James Adams, M.D.
Land development and drought
McCallum, who had brought his ill son to the dry climate for health, brought in irrigation advocate Dr. Oliver Wozencroft and engineer J. P. Lippincott to help construct a canal from the Whitewater River to fruit orchards on his property. He also asked Dr. Welwood Murray to establish a hotel across the street from his residence. Murray did so in 1886 (he later became a famous horticulturalist). The crops and irrigation systems suffered flooding in 1893 from record rainfall, and then an 11-year drought (1894–1905) caused further damage.
20th century
Resort development
The city became a fashionable resort in the 1900sTwo early, but fictional, visitors were six-year-old Mary and her cousin Jack. See: when health tourists arrived with conditions that required dry heat. Because of the heat, however, the population dropped markedly in the summer months. In 1906 naturalist and travel writer George Wharton James's two volume The Wonders of the Colorado Desert described Palm Springs as having "great charms and attractiveness" (Available as a pdf file through the HathiTrust Digital Library.) Wonders is illustrated with over 300 drawings by desert artist Carl Eytel. Many of those drawings, including the Title Page figure, are used throughout Steve Lech's extensive history of early Riverside County. See: Along the Old Roads (cited above). and included an account of his stay at Murray's hotel.Reviews of Wonders included:
As James also described, Palm Springs was more comfortable in its microclimate because the area was covered in the shadow of Mount San Jacinto to the west and in the winter the mountains block cold winds from the San Gorgonio Pass. Early illustrious visitors included John Muir and his daughters, U.S. Vice President Charles Fairbanks, and Fanny Stevenson, widow of Robert Louis Stevenson. Murray's hotel was closed in 1909 and torn down in 1954.
Nellie N. Coffman and her physician husband Harry established The Desert Inn as a hotel and sanitarium in 1909. It was expanded as a modern hotel in 1927 and continued on until 1967. Coffman herself was a "driving force" in the city's tourism industry until her death in 1950.
James's Wonders of the Colorado Desert (above) was followed in 1920 by J. Smeaton Chase's Our Araby: Palm Springs and the Garden of the Sun, which also promoted the area. In 1924 Pearl McCallum (daughter of Judge McCallum) returned to Palm Springs and built the Oasis Hotel with her husband Austin G. McManus; the Modern/Art Deco resort was designed by Lloyd Wright and featured a tower.; and, The next major hotel was the El Mirador, a large and luxurious resort that attracted the biggest movie stars; opening in 1927, its prominent feature was a Renaissance style tower.During World War II, the hotel was taken over and operated as a United States Army General Hospital, named in honor of Surgeon General George H. Torney. Silent film star Fritzi Ridgeway's 100-room Hotel del Tahquitz was built in 1929, next to the "Fool's Folly" mansion built by Chicago heiress Lois Kellogg. Golfing was available at the O'Donnell 9 hole course (1926) and the El Mirador (1929) course (see Golf below). Hollywood movie stars were attracted by the hot dry, sunny weather and seclusion—they built homes and estates in the Warm Sands, The Mesa, and Historic Tennis Club neighborhoods (see Neighborhoods below). About 20,000 visitors came to the area in 1922.
Palm Springs became popular with movie stars in the 1930s and estate building expanded into the Movie Colony neighborhoods, Tahquitz River Estates, and Las Palmas neighborhoods. Actors Charles Farrell and Ralph Bellamy opened the Racquet Club in 1934. Also see: Turner, Mary L. and Turner, Cal A. (photography) (2006). The Beautiful People of Palm Springs. Sedona, AZ: Gene Weed. 154 pp. . The Racquet Club would cater to the Hollywood elite for decades. and Pearl McCallum opened the Tennis Club in 1937. Nightclubs were set up as well, with Al Wertheimer opening The Dunes outside of Palm Springs in 1934 and the Chi Chi nightclub opening in 1936.; and, Besides the gambling available at the Dunes Club, other casinos included The 139 Club and The Cove Club outside of the city.
Shopping district
Bullock's, a large upscale department store on Broadway in Los Angeles, opened a Spanish Colonial-style "resort store" within the Desert Inn complex in 1930. When Bullock's opened a full department store at 151 Palm Canyon Drive in 1947, J. W. Robinson's, another large L.A. store, took the former Bullock's location and opened its own resort store there.