Coachella Valley


The Coachella Valley is an arid rift valley in the Colorado Desert of Southern California in Riverside County. The valley has been referred to as Greater Palm Springs and occasionally the Palm Springs Area due to the historic prominence of the city of Palm Springs. The valley extends approximately southeast from the San Gorgonio Pass to the northern shore of the Salton Sea and the neighboring Imperial Valley, and is approximately 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 Coachella Valley is notable as the location of several wintertime resort cities that have become popular destinations for full time retirees and seasonal residents known as 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 Open tennis tournament.
The Coachella Valley is home to the cities of Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, 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. It was stated by the Riverside County HR Department that "Palm Springs and the Desert Communities" were being visited by 3.5 million conventioneers and tourists annually.
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 valley is considered part of the Low Desert and is included within the Desert Empire to differentiate it from the broader Inland Empire of Southern California.

History

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. 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 including Frank Sinatra and 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 and has also become a tourist destination.

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.
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 and tend to average between. Elevations on the valley floor range from above sea level at the north end of the Valley to 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 to and nighttime lows from to. During winter, the daytime temperatures range from to and corresponding nights range from to 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.

Ecology

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 as well as 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, fleas, foxes, gnats, gophers, hawks, horseflies, jackrabbits, kangaroo rats, mosquitoes, mountain lions, pigeons, quails, rattlesnakes, ravens, roaches, roadrunners, scorpions, spiders, termites, ticks, wasps, whip scorpions or "vinegaroons", and wildcats.
See also:
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 also home to a sizeable LGBTQ population; current estimates are that up to 33% of Palm Springs' residents identify as gay and lesbian, and 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 have moved to the Palm Springs area to take advantage of the extensive health-support systems that have been developed in recent years. 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. A 2004 Claritas study found that 373,100 people resided in the region, with an overall racial makeup of 44.7% White, 49.9% Hispanic, 1.8% Black/African American, 2.1% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.4% American Indian and Eskimo, 0.1% other, and 1.1% two or more races. A 2009 Market Street assessment placed the racial and ethnic makeup as 48% White, 48% Hispanic, 2% Black, and 2% other.

19th and 20th centuries

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.