Title supplied by cataloger. Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, approximately 111 miles east of Los Angeles. It is one of nine adjacent cities that make up the Coachella Valley, and is sheltered by the San Bernardino Mountains to the north, Santa Rosa Mountains to the south, San Jacinto Mountains to the west, and Little San Bernardino Mountains to the east. This geography gives Palm Springs its hot, dry climate with 354 days of sunshine and less than 6 inches of rain annually. The locale features a variety of native desert flora and fauna, and a notable tree occurring in the wild and under cultivation is the California Fan Palm. The Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians have lived in the area they named "Se-Khi" (boiling water) for thousands of years. Their reservation occupies 32,000 acres of which 6,700 acres lie within the city limits, making the Agua Caliente band the city's largest landowner. In the early 1800s, Spanish explorers named the area "Agua Caliente" (hot water), but by the mid-1860s the name "Palm Springs" came into common usage when the land was first surveyed by U.S. Government surveyors who noted that a local mineral spring was located at the base of "two bunches of palms". Palm Springs has become known as "The Playground of the Stars", and many famous people have had homes in the city or have vacationed here. Golf, swimming, tennis, horseback riding and hiking in the nearby desert and mountain areas are major forms of recreation. As of 2007, population stands at 42,350. Postcard shows the Agua Caliente Bath House, in Palm Springs. Though unclear as to where this bath house was actually located, it is said that the Kawasic Cahuilla Indians operated a bath house for tourists as early as 1871, at the important village site of Se-Khe (boiling water), which the Spanish called Agua Caliente (Hot Water).
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