Things to do / Travel Guide
People have been living around the springs and oases of the California Desert since prehistoric times. Traces of these ancient residents can still be seen in sites throughout the region. The ancient peoples of the Mojave and surrounding deserts include Native Americans from the Quechan and Fort Mojave tribes, as well as members of the Ute and Shoshone Nations, who once lived in the region. Descendants of these storied peoples still live in many areas of the region, albeit in much smaller numbers and communities.
The earliest European explorers who arrived in the area saw it as a harsh, inhospitable wasteland between the settled areas of the American Southwest and California's western coast. The famous Spanish Trail, the old wagon trail that connected Santa Fe and Los Angeles, was blazed through this area in the 16th century, and traces of this path can still be seen today. Like the rest of the then-future state of California, the region was part of a Spanish colony from 1769-1821 when it became a part of the Mexican Republic. The United States captured the territory from Mexico in 1848, and later that year the California Gold Rush started, changing the face of the area forever.
During the late-1840s and early-1850s, prospectors and miners passed through the area chasing the American dream in the harsh arid flats of the desert. These hardy entrepreneurs built several towns and settlements, especially during the agricultural development of the Imperial Valley (the desert area in and around the Salton Sea in southeastern California) beginning in the 1850s. Interestingly, 1850 was also that year that the term “Death Valley” came into existence, when a group of lost pioneers coined the name after being rescued from that area by two scouts.
In the mid-19th century, towns like Independence and Lone Pine, in the northern reaches of the region, sprang up to house the fortune-seekers who blazed trails through the northern desert in the years after the Civil War. Until today, these towns, in spite of their small size, remain some of the most inhabited areas of the northern reaches of the California Desert region.
Originally home to the Cahuilla Indians who give the Coachella Valley its name, the area in and around Palm Springs was first notable for a bloody riot between Native Americans and United States government authorities in 1851. After the riots were quelled, the following decades saw Palm Springs advance quickly, and public works projects began to develop the spa and resort infrastructure that were to make the area the famous resort destination it is today.
During WWII, the northern reaches of the region in the area around Independence and Lone Pine received notoriety when they became home to internment camps built by the government to house Japanese Americans during WWII. The most famous of these, the Manzanar National Historic Site, was also the first such camp built by the U.S. government. Remnants of these camps still remain. Nowadays, visitors can see places where this part of the California Desert witnessed one of the darkest chapters of American history.
With the developmental boom of Las Vegas in the late-1940s, the region became much more popular with travelers from the West Coast heading towards Sin City. All types of people, from celebrities to garden-variety gamblers, began commuting down the Interstate highways in droves from the west, taking in the stunning desert scenery along the way. Indeed, until today, visitors headed out to Las Vegas, especially from Los Angeles, are familiar with the sights seen from I-10 and I-15.
In its golden age in the 1940s and 50s, Palm Springs was a playground for the Rat Pack and featured regular shows from stars of the time such as Frank Sinatra, Jack Benny, and Bing Crosby. In its heyday, the town became a destination fully embedded in the American pop culture lexicon and has since remained a premier domestic tourist hotspot. Even today, the city still holds a “household name-type status” with most Americans. In particular, the collegiate crowd tends to inundate Palm Springs when Spring Break rolls around, the party scene being among the top ones in the country.
With the spread of irrigation and waterworks programs throughout the area, the region has blossomed with desert oases, and is now home to quite a few small towns and cities. Nonetheless, in spite of its development in the second half of the 20th century, which brought about a dramatic increase in mid-century Modern architecture, the region remains a sparsely populated, mostly rural area full of wide-open expanses and clear desert vistas.
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