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. 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". In 1877, the Southern Pacific Railroad completed its line through the desert to the Pacific Ocean, and in 1884, Judge John Guthrie McCallum of San Francisco and his family became the first non-Indians to settle into the area. McCallum, with the assistance of local Indians, built a 19-mile stone-lined ditch from the Whitewater River into Palm Springs bringing in pure, precious water for irrigation. Dr. Wellwood Murray of nearby Banning, opened Palm Springs' first hotel, aptly named the Palm Springs Hotel. In 1909, Dr. Harry and Nellie Coffman started their sanitarium, The Desert Inn, which was originally a place for those afflicted with tuberculosis. The Desert Inn later became a world-renowned resort catering to the very wealthy, including well-known millionaires such as the Vanderbilt and Hearst families. In 1928, cattle rancher Prescott T. Stevens built El Mirador Hotel, and a year later, a garage was built to serve its elite car-savvy clientele. Palm Springs was incorporated in 1938 with Philip Boyd serving as the first Mayor. That same year, the first high school opened its doors to students. In 1939, the public library was established, and in 1951 the Desert Hospital opened. Palm Springs has become known as "The Playground of the Stars", and many famous people have had homes in the city or have vacationed at this desert oasis. 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. Early view of a dirt road that ran through Palm Springs when it was still considered a 'young' town. Several establishments can be seen on the right side of the road - most of them unidentifiable, except for the tall white building (center), which is the Hotel la Palma.
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Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;15 x 24 cm. on sheet 21 x 26 cm. Photographic prints
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