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, map_image = Wpdms shdrlfi020l coachella valley.jpg , map_caption = Coachella Valley , location =
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, United States , coordinates = , width = , boundaries =
Salton Sea The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gul ...
(southeast), Santa Rosa Mountains (southwest), San Jacinto Mountains (west), Little San Bernardino Mountains (east), San Gorgonio Mountain (north) , towns =
Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...
, Palm Springs, Palm Desert , traversed = Interstate 10 The Coachella Valley ( ) is an
arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...
rift valley in the Colorado Desert of
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
's Riverside County. The valley may also be referred to as Greater Palm Springs due to the prominence of the city of Palm Springs. The valley extends approximately southeast from the
San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Fault, a major tran ...
to the northern shore of the
Salton Sea The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline body of water in Riverside and Imperial counties at the southern end of the U.S. state of California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough that stretches to the Gul ...
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 valley is notable as the location of several wintertime resort cities, especially Palm Springs, that have become popular destinations for snowbirds — people who live in cold climates and seek out warmer weather during winters. 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 Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...
. Other events include the Palm Springs Modernism Week, Palm Springs International Film Festival, the
ANA Inspiration The Chevron Championship is a professional women's golf tournament. An event on the LPGA Tour, it is one of the tour's five major championships, and has traditionally been the first of the season since its elevation to major status in 1983. Fou ...
and
Desert Classic The Desert Classic (currently known as The American Express for sponsorship reasons; previously known as the CareerBuilder Challenge, Palm Springs Golf Classic, the Bob Hope Desert Classic, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, and the Humana Challen ...
golf tournaments, and the Indian Wells Masters tennis tournament. In addition to Palm Springs and the area's largest city
Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...
, the valley is home to the resort cities of Cathedral City, Indian Wells,
La Quinta La Quinta (Spanish for "The Fifth") is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. Located between Indian Wells and Indio, it is one of the nine cities of the Coachella Valley. The population was 37,467 at the 2010 cen ...
, Palm Desert, and
Rancho Mirage Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal (part-time) population can exceed 20,000. Incorporated in 1973 and located ...
. As the valley is a major winter destination, its population fluctuates from almost 500,000 in April to around 200,000 in July and around 800,000 by January. It was estimated in 2013 that 3.5 million conventioneers and tourists visit the valley each year. The Coachella Valley connects with the
Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Co ...
area to the west via the
San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Fault, a major tran ...
, a major transportation corridor, traversed by Interstate 10 and by the
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
. The Coachella Valley is sometimes called the Desert Empire to differentiate it from the broader
Inland Empire The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the citie ...
.


History

There is some contention as to the origin of the name. Early maps show the area as ''"Conchilla,"'' the Spanish word for "seashell." Since the area was once a part of a vast inland sea, tiny fossilized mollusk shells can be found in the area. Even though 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. Cindarella Courtney was the first non-native American child born in Indio in 1898. The first boy, David Elgin, was born in 1899. The coming in 1926 of U.S. Route 99 northward through Coachella and Indio and westward toward
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, 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 June McCarroll (June 30, 1867 – March 30, 1954) is credited by the California Department of Transportation with the idea of delineating highways with a painted line to separate lanes of highway traffic, although this claim is disputed by the F ...
, 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 from Frank Sinatra to 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 attraction. In a 2003
Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's m ...
publication review, Palm Springs was ranked one of the top 10 global vacation destinations, and the smallest among them in population.


Geography

The Coachella Valley is the northernmost extent of the vast
Salton Trough The Salton Trough is an active tectonic pull-apart basin, or graben. It lies within the Imperial, Riverside, and San Diego counties of southeastern California, United States and extends south of the Mexico–United States border into the sta ...
, also called the Cahuilla Basin, which includes the Salton Sea, and the Imperial Valley in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, as well as the
Mexicali Valley Mexicali (; ) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California. The city, seat of the Mexicali Municipality, has a population of 689,775, according to the 2010 census, while the Calexico–Mexicali metropolitan area is home to 1,000, ...
and
Colorado River Delta The Colorado River Delta is the region where the Colorado River flows into the Gulf of California (also known as the Sea of Cortez) in eastern Mexicali Municipality in the north of the state of Baja California in northwesternmost Mexico. The ...
in
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. The trough is a result of combined tectonic activity of the
San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal) ...
, which follows the northeastern side of the valley, and the
East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean rise (termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), a divergent tectonic plate boundary located alon ...
that runs up through the
Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...
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 The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal) ...
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 A Sturzstrom (from the German '' Sturz'' (fall) and ''Strom'' (stream, flow)) or ''rock avalanche'' is a large landslide consisting of soil and rock which travels a great horizontal distance (as much as 20 or 30 times) compared to its initial ver ...
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
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
s 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 The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...
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 A haboob ( ar, هَبوب, lit=blasting/drifting, translit=habūb) is a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current, also known as a weather front. Haboobs occur regularly in dry land area regions throughout the worl ...
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 The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subsp ...
inhabit the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, and the
fringe-toed lizard Fringe-toed lizards are lizards of the genus ''Uma'' in the family Phrynosomatidae, native to deserts of North America. They are adapted for life in sandy deserts with fringe-like scales on their hind toes hence their common name. Description ...
, 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, diamondbacks, fleas, foxes, gnats, gophers, hawks, horseflies, jackrabbits,
kangaroo rat Kangaroo rats, small mostly nocturnal rodents of genus ''Dipodomys'', are native to arid areas of western North America. The common name derives from their bipedal form. They hop in a manner similar to the much larger kangaroo, but developed ...
s, mosquitoes, mountain lions, pigeons, quails, rattlesnakes, ravens, roaches, roadrunners, scorpions, spiders, termites, ticks, vipers, wasps, whip scorpions or "vinegaroons", and wildcats. See also: * Geography of the Colorado Desert * Fauna of the Colorado Desert * Sonoran Desert wildflowers *
Coachella Valley Jerusalem Cricket ''Ammopelmatus cahuilaensis'' (commonly known as the Coachella Valley Jerusalem cricket) is a species of insect in the family Stenopelmatidae. The species is found in the Coachella Valley and was described by Ernest R. Tinkham in 1968, in The ...


Demographics

As 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 nevertheless renowned for being a community that is known for its inclusion of gays and lesbians as part of a diverse community. Current estimates are that up to 33% of Palm Springs' residents identify as gay and lesbian. 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 Ron Oden (born March 21, 1950) is an American politician. In November 2003, he was elected the first gay African-American mayor of Palm Springs, California, after serving eight years on the city council. He became the first Black openly gay ...
, perhaps at the time the United States' only openly gay African-American mayor, a large number of people living with HIV (PWH) have moved to the Palm Springs area to take advantage of the extensive health-support systems that have been developed in recent years (such as DAP Health). 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. As of 2004, the Claritas study found that 373,100 people resided in the region. The racial makeup was 44.7% Non-Hispanic White, 49.9% Hispanic, 1.8% Black/African American, 2.1% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.4% American Indian and Inuit, 0.1% from other races, and 1.1% from two or more races.


Early history

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
traquero A traquero is a railroad track worker, or "section hand", especially a Mexican or Mexican American railroad track worker (" gandy dancer" in American English usage). The word derives from "traque", Spanglish for "track". Background While the U.S. ra ...
s 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.


Hispanic community

Hispanic Americans are long established in Palm Springs' central and eastern sections, and have constituted the majority of the populations of
Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...
and Coachella for many decades. In the 2000 U.S. census, about 35 percent of Coachella Valley residents were Latino. But according to the
United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) is the largest Hispanic business organization in the United States. It was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Washington, DC. The chamber promotes the economic growth and development of ...
, an estimated half (50–60 percent) of the residents are Latino. A large portion of Latinos moving into the area are from the Los Angeles-Orange County and San Diego metro areas. Most of the valley's Hispanics are Mexican from a multi-generational community (see Chicano), but
Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
n immigrants (especially in Indio and Cathedral City),
Cuban American Cuban Americans ( es, cubanoestadounidenses or ''cubanoamericanos'') are Americans who trace their cultural heritage to Cuba regardless of phenotype or ethnic origin. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of Cuban descent or ...
s,
Puerto Ricans Puerto Ricans ( es, Puertorriqueños; or boricuas) are the people of Puerto Rico, the inhabitants, and citizens of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and their descendants. Overview The culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred t ...
, and South Americans are also numerous (esp. in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert). Since the late 1980s, the large wave of immigration from neighboring Mexico has culturally impacted the Coachella Valley in many more ways than the rest of California or the country, but the national trend slowed down due to the late 2000s recession. Most Hispanic immigrants came to obtain work in the area's year-round agriculture, but today many find employment in construction and home remodeling, the resort hospitality industry, landscaping firms, and in the retail sector.


Other racial/ethnic groups

The prominence of Native Americans of the
Cahuilla The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.National Congress of American Indians, less than 5 percent of the area's residents are Native Americans.
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s are concentrated in Palm Springs' northern and eastern ends, as well as in small sections of Indio and Desert Hot Springs, but local African Americans live everywhere in middle-class and wealthy areas and comprise less than 5 percent of the local population. The area is home to 10,000 Indian Americans (mostly from
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
), descendants of agricultural workers in the 1930s and 1940s. Additionally, Palm Desert is the home of 1,000 Tahitians, a
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
people from French Polynesia. Other ethnic groups in the area like
Asian Americans Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peopl ...
(i.e. Chinese, Japanese and
Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or other ...
), followed by a small wave of
Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
and
Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
(esp. Lebanese and Syrians) from the Middle East were involved in the area's agriculture in the early 1900s. In recent years, the area (especially Palm Desert and Palm Springs) became popular for
Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...
,
Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni Israeli (b ...
, East Indian, Yugoslav (Former) and Korean home buyers, with most purchasing increasingly high-valued properties for investment purposes.


Local emphasis of tolerance

In mid-2000, Palm Springs city officials and business leaders discussed making an unofficial declaration of Palm Springs as a "hate-free zone" as a sign of local pride to celebrate the city's tolerance (Palm Springs, especially in '' The Advocate'' magazine that caters to gay and lesbian readership, has voted it as one of the top five most popular world places for the gay/lesbian community) and multicultural diversity of the city's relaxed attitude regarding many races living close together. According to the Palm Springs Pride
LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...
association poll and census data in 2010, an estimated 40–45 percent of Palm Springs' residents are thought to be LGBT and nearby Cathedral City is about one-quarter, each having above averages of LGBT people for a U.S. city.


Religious life

Many faiths and denominations are represented in the area. Protestants and Catholics are the most numerous. According to the Jewish Federation of the Desert based in Palm Springs, the Coachella Valley has one of California's largest Jewish communities, estimated at 35,000, a result of being a major retirement destination and connections to the Hollywood film industry. There has also been a sizable Latter-Day Saints community since the early 1900s, with three stakes, formerly branches, which experienced rapid growth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints form a large population in the
Inland Empire The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the citie ...
and High Desert regions. The Islamic Society of the Coachella Valley has a
mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
in the city of Coachella.


Communities and population

The Coachella Valley contains nine cities and various unincorporated communities. The incorporated cities of the Coachella Valley had a population of approximately 370,000 at the 2020 Census. State projections estimate that the valley's population will pass 1 million by 2066. Demographers believe the total population already surpassed the 500,000 mark, plus 100,000 temporary seasonal residents known as "snowbirds" arriving to stay during the winter months (from the end of October to the end of April). The city of Palm Springs sits at the northwest end of the valley. Unincorporated areas and towns include
Cabazon Cabazon (Spanish: ''Cabazón'') is a unincorporated community in Riverside County, California, United States. Cabazon is on the Pacific Crest Trail. In the 21st century, the area has become a tourist stop, due to the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa ...
in the San Gorgonio Pass, and Bermuda Dunes and Thousand Palms in the east end of the valley with Indio Hills, Sky Valley, North Palm Springs and
Garnet Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different ...
along the northern rim along with Thermal, Vista Santa Rosa, Oasis and
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...
to the southeast. The native
Cahuilla The Cahuilla , also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California.Cabazon Band of Mission Indians The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians is a federally recognized tribe of Cahuilla Indians, located in Riverside County, California.Pritzker, 120 Reservation The Cabazon Indian Reservation was founded in 1876. It occupies located in Coachella, ...
,
Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians The Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians of California is a federally recognized tribe of Mission Indians with a reservation consisting of two sections, one located near the cities of Indio and Coachella in Riverside County, and the other ...
, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Torres-Martinez Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Mission Creek Band in unincorporated Painted Hills, and the Santa Rosa Indian Reservation south of Palm Desert, each have reservations in the area.


Economy


Agriculture

The irrigation of over of the Valley since the early 20th century has allowed widespread agriculture. In its 2006 annual report, the Coachella Valley Water District listed the year's total crop value at over $576 million or almost $12,000 per acre. As of 2010 the valley produced agricultural products worth about $600 million. The valley is the primary date-growing region in the United States, responsible for nearly 95 percent of the nation's crop and is celebrated each year in Indio during the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival. The earliest attempt at growing dates came about in 1890 when the
United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
(USDA) imported date palm shoots from Iraq and Egypt. Sixty-eight shoots were distributed across the Southwest U.S. in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Yuma, Arizona,
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, and several California cites: Indio, Pomona near Los Angeles, Tulare and National City near San Diego. The imports were almost all male seedlings and produced poor fruit. The Coachella Valley showed promise, so USDA horticulturist Bernard Johnson planted a number of shoots that he brought back from Algeria in September 1903. On his own initiative, Johnson imported more shoots from Algeria in 1908 and again in 1912. The area's entire date industry can be traced back to those original USDA experiments near present-day
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...
. Date palms were grown from present-day Cathedral City to the Salton Sea, but most date groves were overtaken by development by the 1990s. Today nearly all of the date groves are in the "East Valley" area south of Indio, near Coachella and east of La Quinta. Other agricultural products cultivated in the Coachella Valley include fruits and vegetables, especially table grapes, citrus fruits such as lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit; onions and leeks; and peppers. The valley floor served to grow bounties of alfalfa, artichokes, avocados, beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, corn, cotton, cucumbers, dandelions (salad greens), eggplant, figs, grains (i.e. barley, oats, rye and wheat; plus rice fields kept wet or moist in the Salton Sea area), hops, kohlrabi, lettuce, mangoes, nectarines and peaches, persimmons, plums and prunes, pomegranate, potatoes, radishes, spinach, strawberries, sugar cane, tomatoes, a variety of herbs and spices, and other vegetable crops. The Coachella grapefruit originated in the region. The city of Coachella is the primary shipping point for agricultural goods. Domesticated grasses, flowers and trees are widely grown for warm-weather or desert climates, and sold for use in golf courses and landscape. Only 10 percent of the Coachella Valley residents were born/raised in the area, according to the 2000 census, a much lower percentage than found in most parts of the U.S. Agriculture is a founding block of the majority of the residents whose parents and grandparents came to the area as farmers and laborers transformed the eastern parts of the valley from a hot sandy desert into a fertile place with a year-round growing season. The Coachella Valley's agricultural development is due to irrigation: water was drawn from an underground aquifer created when the valley was under a fresh water lake in the last
ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
(over 10,000 years ago); and from the Coachella Canal, a concrete-lined aqueduct built between 1938 and 1948 as a branch of the All-American Canal, which brings water from the
Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...
to the Valley. The Colorado River Aqueduct, which provides drinking water to Los Angeles and
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
, crosses the northeast end of the Valley along the base of the Little San Bernardino Mountains (the Joshua Tree National Park). Recent growth of fish farming or
aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
in Mecca near the Salton Sea brings new promise to the local economy, especially to efforts to restore the ailing ecology of the large saltwater lake.


Wind power

The valley's northwest entrance from the San Bernardino- Riverside along Interstate 10 is known as the
San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Fault, a major tran ...
and is the second windiest place in the country. Cool coastal air is forced through the pass and mixes with the hot desert air, making the San Gorgonio Pass one of only three ideal places in California for steady, wind-generated electricity. At the
San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm The San Gorgonio Pass wind farm is a wind farm that stretches from the eastern slope of the San Gorgonio Pass, near Cabazon, to North Palm Springs, on the western end of the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California. Flanked by Mount Sa ...
, thousands of huge wind turbines spread across the desert and hills on either side of the highway greet visitors as they approach the crest of the pass and have become somewhat of a symbol of the area. The state's other wind farms are in the Tehachapi Pass between Mojave and
Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
and in the
Altamont Pass Altamont Pass, formerly Livermore Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Diablo Range of Northern California between Livermore in the Livermore Valley and Tracy in the San Joaquin Valley. The name is actually applied to two distinct but near ...
near Livermore.


Businesses

* Siemens Water Technologies, Palm Desert – manufacturer of industrial water filtration systems. *
Guthy-Renker Guthy-Renker ( ) is a California-based direct-response marketing company that sells health and beauty products directly to consumers through infomercials, television ads, direct mail, telemarketing, e-mail marketing, and the Internet. Many of ...
, Palm Desert – producer of mail order infomercials. * Ernie Ball, manufacturer of electric guitar strings, opened a manufacturing facility in Coachella in 2005. *
Shields Date Gardens Shields Date Garden is a historic date palm orchard and tourist attraction in Indio, California, United States. History The company was founded in 1924 by Floyd and Bess (Lugton) Shields. Floyd Shields was one of the pioneering date farmers in ...
, date producer – a local landmark and tourist attraction since 1924. *
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...
bottling plant facility in Coachella – opened in 2009 and employs 1,000 people. * Eisenhower Medical Center, opened in 1971, is a 540-bed hospital with in-patient facilities, emergency department, and out-patient clinics and urgent care centers. Eisenhower employs approximately 2800 people.


Recreation and annual activities

With warm winters and more than 350 days of sunshine per year, recreational hiking and horseback riding are popular in the many canyons in the mountains that surround the valley. One of the most visited outdoor sports areas is Thousand Palms Canyon. The Coachella Valley was once a safe haven for hay fever allergy sufferers before the surge of golf courses and year-round lawns, and people with bronchitis, emphysema and asthma chose to relocate for health reasons in the early half of the 20th century. In the early 20th century, Palm Springs was an ideal farming town and had some space converted to a minor agricultural economy. After that failed, all the fields and groves were replaced by homes and golf courses. Agriculture succeeded in the lower Coachella Valley near the communities of Thermal, Mecca, Oasis and Vista Santa Rosa that had a large underground aquifer to sustain a year-round green environment. Roughly 125 golf courses blanket the area, making it one of the world's premier golf destinations and the most popular golf vacation destination in California. The
Merrill Lynch Skins Game The Skins Game was an unofficial-money event on the PGA Tour from 1983 to 2008. It took place in November or December each year after the end of the official PGA Tour season. It was recognized by the PGA Tour but did not count towards the officia ...
was held in La Quinta each Thanksgiving and drew some of the biggest names in golf. The PGA has a major presence in La Quinta as well with the PGA WEST golf and residential complex. One of the host courses of the aforementioned Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, a PGA WEST fairway represents the area in Soarin' Over California, an IMAX-based attraction at Disney California Adventure Park theme park. The area is also dotted with casinos run by local Indian tribes as well as resort hotels and spas with natural mineral water wells, making it a vacation destination as well. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway takes visitors from the valley floor to the San Jacinto Peak mountain station above sea level. Palm Springs is home to one of the country's largest collections of mid-century architecture. Thousands of homes, apartments, hotels, businesses and other buildings were designed in this fashion across the city. International mid-century enthusiasts come to Palm Springs to admire the design.


Events, activities and attractions

Changing exhibits of sculptures can be found along El Paseo Drive in Palm Desert. Palm Springs has the annual Palm Springs International Film Festival every January and the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival (or
ShortFest The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films (a.k.a. Palm Springs International ShortFest) held annually in Palm Springs, California is the largest film festival for short films in the United States.Plaza Theatre. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden, opened in 2000, hosts the
BNP Paribas Open The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open is an annual tennis tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, United States. The owner is La ...
tennis tournament annually in March. Each February, Indio hosts the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival. Indio is also the site of the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, a multi-genre music concert venue in the Empire Polo Ground, recognized as one of the nation's premiere music festivals for its high-profile acts and scenic beauty. Visitors see desert nature at the nearby Joshua Tree National Park and the
Sand to Snow National Monument Sand to Snow National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located in San Bernardino County and northern Riverside County, Southern California. It protects diverse montane and desert habitats of the San Bernardino Mountains, southern Mojave D ...
to the north, the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south and Mt. San Jacinto Aerial Tram to the west. The
Living Desert Zoo and Gardens The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, formerly the Living Desert Museum, is a non-profit zoo and desert botanical garden located in Palm Desert, Riverside County, California, United States. The Living Desert is home to over 500 animals representing ...
is located in Palm Desert and has a collection of animals mostly from North America and Africa and hosts the annual Wild Lights Christmas light display. The Coachella Valley History Museum in Indio is devoted to the preservation and interpretation of the Coachella Valley's historical artifacts. Other activities include: * An annual air show is held in November is held at the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal. The
Palm Springs Airport Annual Air Show Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...
held every January displays World War II-era vintage fighter aircraft. *
The Desert Circuit Horse Show ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
is one of the nation's largest horse competitions is also held at the Desert International Horse Park located in Thermal from January through March. * In 2022, the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the
American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the lea ...
plans to begin play at the under-construction Coachella Valley Arena in Palm Desert. Prior to the AHL team, the Coachella Valley had little success at luring a professional team. * The Palm Springs Power collegiate summer league baseball team plays during the summer and the
Palm Springs Chill The Palm Springs Chill are an independent baseball team based in Palm Springs, California. They are co-owned by the Palm Springs Power and play their home games at Palm Springs Stadium. Andrew Starke is the team president and Darrell Evans is ...
is a team of the
California Winter League California Winter League is a former baseball winter league. It was the first integrated league in the 20th century as players from Major League Baseball and Negro league baseball played each other in training games. The league was in existence f ...
plays in January and February both in Palm Springs Stadium with opponent teams the Canada A's, Coachella Valley Snowbirds and Palm Desert Coyotes. It is the former site of the California Angels major league spring training facility from 1961 to 1993. Collegiate sports are played at College of the Desert at its Palm Desert campus. * The expanded Palm Springs Convention Center is a major venue for shows, concerts, auctions, expos and exhibits. In the past, it played host to exhibition basketball, roller hockey games, ice skating events and indoor sports. The
NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA D ...
basketball
Agua Caliente Clippers The Ontario Clippers, formerly known as the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario, are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Ontario, California, and are affiliated with the Los Angeles Clippers. The team began play in ...
of
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
played some games there. * In 2008–11, The Indian Wells Tennis Garden hosted the Annual NBA Outdoors Game hosted by the Phoenix Suns every first weekend of October. * The Walter Annenberg Estate Museum dedicated to the famous valley resident, billionaire, friend to celebrities and philanthropist. * Art of Food & Wine Palm Desert in the Gardens in El Paseo. * Indian Wells Arts and Food festival. * La Quinta Arts Festival. * Southwest Arts Festival. * Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, Children's Discovery Museum.


Education

The Coachella Valley is served by three public school districts: the Coachella Valley Unified School District of Coachella; Desert Sands Unified School District serving La Quinta, Indio and Palm Desert; and Palm Springs Unified School District of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, and Desert Hot Springs. There are 12 public high schools: * Cathedral City High School, Cathedral City. * Coachella Valley High School, Coachella. * Desert Hot Springs High School, Desert Hot Springs. * Desert Mirage High School, Thermal. * Indio High School, Indio – renovated. * La Quinta High School (La Quinta, California). * Palm Desert High School, Palm Desert. * Palm Springs High School, Palm Springs. * Rancho Mirage High School, Rancho Mirage. * Seaview High School, Mecca. * Shadow Hills High School, Indio. * West Shores High School, Salton City. For athletics, the schools compete in the Desert Valley League, Desert Empire League or the De Anza league, all part of the Southern Section of the California Interscholastic Federation. Private education is provided by such as: * Catholic School (Our Lady of Perpeutal Help), Indio. * Christian Desert Calvary Bible School, Cathedral City. * Christian Scientist School, Palm Desert. * Community of Christ School, Palm Springs. * Desert Adventist Academy, Palm Desert. * Desert Chapel and high school, Palm Springs. * Desert Christian Academy (formerly Christian School of the Desert), Bermuda Dunes. * Desert Torah Academy (was Jewish Community School), Palm Desert. * Escuela Cesar Chavez (High School), Indio. * Grace Christian Academy, Indio (and Yucca Valley) * * Indio (County) Community School, Indio * King's Schools (Distinctively Christian Education), Palm Springs. * Learning Tree School, Palm Desert. * Marywood Academy, Rancho Mirage. * Mayfield School, Rancho Mirage. * Mission Springs School, Desert Hot Springs. * Morongo (Desert View) Military Academy, Desert Hot Springs. * Nova Academy, Coachella. * Oasis Seventh-Day Adventist Academy, Palm Desert. * Orange Crest Academy, Palm Springs (Riverside based). * Palm Desert Presbyterian Church School, Palm Desert. * Palm Springs Community School (Harry Oliver-Thousand Palms and Frances Stevens campuses-Palm Springs). * Palm Springs County School, North Palm Springs. * Palm Valley School, Rancho Mirage. * Presbyterian Church School of the Desert, Palm Springs. * River Springs Charter School, Indio * Sacred Heart Catholic School, Palm Desert. * Saint Teresa's Catholic School, Palm Springs. * San Cayetano Community School, Palm Desert. * Southwest Community Church School, Indian Wells. * The Ranch Christian Academy, Thousand Palms. * Xavier College Preparatory High School, Palm Desert. Higher education is served by the College of the Desert (COD), a Community colleges in the United States, community college with its main campus in Palm Desert. COD constructed several satellite campuses including an annex on Oasis Street in
Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...
, an East Valley campus in Thermal and a West Valley annex in Palm Springs. COD has experienced sudden growth in the campus from the 1970s to the late 2000s. The University of California Riverside (Coachella Valley) and California State University San Bernardino (Palm Desert) campus annexes are located in the Indian Wells (Higher) Education Center in Palm Desert. There is the Santa Barbara Business College and the San Bernardino Skidron Business School/College in Palm Desert. Another college is Brandman University, operated by Chapman University in Palm Desert.


Media

The Coachella Valley, under the title "Palm Springs", is a distinct Nielsen ratings, Nielsen and Arbitron ratings market, with eight local television stations and twenty radio stations. The first television station in the Coachella Valley is KMIR channel 6 by John Conte (actor), John Conte and Bob Hope, the NBC affiliate premiered in 1968 remains on the air as the desert's longest running TV station. KPLM (which later became KESQ, the Coachella Valley's current ABC affiliate) went on the air later with a party that made national headlines; it was founded by Robert E. Leonard. The station later made national news and garnered late night jokes from Johnny Carson and Bob Newhart when the station manager accidentally ran on air a pornographic movie. Gun TV, the gun shopping channel, is headquartered in the Valley. Cable subscribers under Spectrum (cable service), Charter Spectrum cable can receive some
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
area television channels as part of basic cable service. Satellite television and satellite radio are available as well. The eastern Coachella Valley can receive Mexican television from Mexicali, away. The Gannett Company-owned ''The Desert Sun'' is the local daily newspaper; the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the ''Press-Enterprise, Riverside Press-Enterprise'' is also sold there (Gannett also operates the Desert Post Weekly). The Desert Valley Star Weekly is an independent community weekly that covers the Coachella Valley, and the Desert Entertainer is a calendar-type entertainment weekly produced by Hi-Desert Publishing. The area's city magazine, ''Palm Springs Life'' caters to the valley's rich and famous elites, while The Sun Runner Magazine covers the California desert region, including the Coachella Valley
Palm Springs Art Patron Magazine
covers the Art community of the Desert. A number of periodicals cover the area's LGBT community, including ''In Magazine.'' An alternative news and entertainment publication, the ''Coachella Valley Independent'', was founded online in late 2012. It is currently in print as a monthly publication. Another independent publication is ''Coachella Valley Weekly'', which is printed weekly and was also founded in 2012. The Coachella Valley also has a art blog, Coachella Valley Art Scene Blog for the younger community.


Television

Included are Low-Power stations and relay transmitters with limited frequency area * KPLM-LP Channel 1 Ind. - Twentynine Palms. * KYUM-LD Channels 15/51 (Spanish language religious) – Indio/Imperial Valley/Yuma, Arizona. * Channel 3 (KTVK – Independent) –
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
. * KAKZ-LD Channel 4 (Azteca America) – Palm Springs. * KEVC-CD Channel 5 (UniMas transmit of KDTF-LD San Diego) – Indio. * XETV-TDT Channel 6 (The CW) – San Diego. * KVFA-LP Channels 6/14 (Independent) – Indio (Yuma AZ). * Channel 7 KAZT (Independent) – Prescott, Arizona. * KVYE Channel 7 (Univision) – Yuma, Arizona. * KVPS Channel 8 – (Spanish language Religious) – Indio. * Channel 8 (KAET-PBS) – Phoenix. * Channel 9 (KECY FOX) – El Centro, California. * K09XW Channel 9 (PBS) – transmitter of KVCR-DT Riverside/San Bernardino – Palm Springs/Palm Desert. * Channel 10 K10QV-D (K10OU)/ KLPS Channel 19 (Independent) – Palm Springs. * Channel 11/34 (KESE 35 Telemundo) – El Centro. * KYAV-LP Channel 12 AccuWeather – Yucca Valley. * Channel 13 (KYMA-DT CBS) – Yuma Az/El Centro. * Channel 14 (XHBM-TDT, XHBM – Televisa) – Mexicali. * K14AB (KTTV 11 Fox Los Angeles) – Yucca Valley. * KUNA-LD Channel 15 (Telemundo) – Palm Desert/La Quinta. * K15FC – transmitter of KESQ Palm Springs – Joshua Tree. * K16AA – transmitter of KCBS Los Angeles – Morongo Valley. * KODG-LP Channel 17 KOCE 50-PBS Orange County, California, Orange County – Indio/Palm Springs. * KJHP-LP Channel 18 (PBS) – transmitter of KVCR-DT – Morongo Valley/Palm Springs. * K19CX Channel 19 (PBS) Yuma AZ part of KAET 8- PBS
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
. * K19DB (Spanish language religious) – Victorville, California, Victorville. * KCWQ-LD channel 20 (The CW) – Palm Springs/Palm Desert/Indio. * K20HZ "KMXX" Channel 20 (Home Shopping Network, HSN/ MexiCanal) – Indio/Palm Springs. * K21DO "KNDO" (3ABN religious) – Indio/Palm Springs. * KSHT-LP Channel 22 (Independent) – Indio/Palm Springs. * KVMD Channels 23/31 (Independent, Asian language, ethnic and EWTN programming) – Twentynine Palms/ Victorville. * First Nations Experience, FNX Channel 24.2 – San Bernardino. * K27DS Channel 27 (ABC) – transmitter of KESQ – Yucca Valley (as of January 2018 off the air). * XHAQ-TDT, XHAQ channel 28 (TV Azteca) – Mexicali. * K29GK – transmitter of KTLA Los Angeles – Yucca Valley. * K60GY 30 – transmitter of KPSE-LD 50 – Twentynine Palms. * KOCE-TV, KRVD Channel 30 (PBS) – Banning. * KRET-CD Channels 31/45 (MeTV) – Palm Desert/ Yucca Valley. * KDFX-CD Channel 33 (FOX) – Indio/Palm Springs. * "K35LA" – Channel 35 KCET Desert cities – Digital cable channel 218 – Los Angeles. * Channels 35/39 (Telemundo) via KVEA Corona/Los Angeles. * XHBC-TDT, XHBC channels 3/34/35 (Televisa) – Mexicali. * KMIR Channel 36 (NBC) (cable 6/13) – Palm Desert (Palm Springs) – one of the first two local TV stations since 1968 (the other KESQ-TV). Subchannels 36.2 (MeTv) and 36.3 – Movies! – also available in Banning, California. * KVES-LD Channel 36 (Univision) – Palm Springs. * KPSP-CD Channels 38/ 42.2 (CBS-Loop of local KESQ family news programs) – Thousand Palms. * Channel 39 (KNSD 40 NBC) – San Diego. * Channel 39 (RFDTV translator) – Coachella/Imperial. * KVER-CD Channels 41 (Univision), 41.2 (Unimas), 41.3 (Court TV Mystery), 41.4 (Laff (TV network), Laff), 41.5 (KPST-FM) – Indio. * KVES-CA Channels 41.1 (GalaVision), 41.2 (UniMas) – Cathedral City. * KZSW Channels 41/27/34 transmits (Independent) – Hemet/Temecula/San Diego. * KESQ-TV Channel 42 (ABC HD and CBS SD, cable 3) – Palm Desert (Palm Springs)/Indio – available in Hemet, California, Hemet/San Jacinto, California, San Jacinto and Banning, California, Banning/Beaumont, California, Beaumont. * KPXN-TV Channel 43 (Ion) - San Bernardino transmits. * "KHIX" Channel 45 – transmitter of KVME (MeTV) Bishop. * KFTR-DT Channel 46 (UniMas) – Ontario/San Bernardino. * XHILA-TDT Channel 46 – Mexicali. * BYU-TV transmitter of KBYU-TV 11 Provo, Utah. * K49HV Channel 49 – transmitter of KILM (SonLife Broadcasting religious) Victorville. * KPSE-LD Channel 50 (My Network) – Palm Springs. * KUSI channel 51 (Independent) – Temecula/San Diego. * KAZA-TV channels 54/34 (Azteca America) – Los Angeles. * KDOC-TV, KDOC channel 56 (Independent) – Anaheim/Orange County. "4SD" ("KCOX") is cable only from the San Diego area. Also available on some cable systems KTTV 11 and KCOP 13 Los Angeles; and KFMB-TV 8, KGTV 10 and KPBS (TV), KPBS 15 San Diego.


Radio

The Morris Corporation-owned Desert Radio Group of Palm Springs owns three AM and three FM radio stations; RM Broadcasting of Palm Springs is the largest in terms of FM ownership with four stations: KPLM "K-Palm", KRHQ "KJ-Jazz", KJJZ "the Oasis" and KMRJ "The Heat"; and R&R Broadcasting of Palm Springs, the only other independent group other than RR Broadcasting, owns three AM and two FM stations with negotiations solidified to close the purchase of their newest station, KWXY-FM. The group currently owns the FM station merged with the other station KDES 104.7 moved to 98.5 on the FM dial in 2011, CBS Radio KXO (AM), KXO is the region's oldest radio station since 1927 based in El Centro, California. Formerly "KEZN", KQPS is one of 3 LGBT-themed local radio stations on 103.1 FM Palm Desert, Ca. 92260, and KCPC (AM) Public Radio based in Cathedral City. Alpha Media Palm Springs is the largest radio group in the Coachella Valley with 8 local radio stations.
The Eagle 106.9 FM (KDGL) Classic Hits

MIX 100.5 FM (KPSI) The Desert's Best Mix - #2 station in the Coachella Valley, total audience

U92.7 FM (KKUU) Rhythmic Contemporary Hits Radio- #1 station in the Coachella Valley, total audience

K-NEWS News Talk (KNWZ) The Voice of the Valley! 94.3 FM & 104.7 FM, 970 AM East Valley, 1140 AM West Valley, 1250 AM & 103.7FM Desert Cities

KCLB Rock 93.7 FM, The heritage Rock Station

The Bull 98.5 FM Country (KDES), The Valley's New Country Music station

MOD 107.3 FM (KDES-HD2) Old Standards

ESPN SPORTS Talk 103.9 FM (KKUU-HD2)
WestMark Media LLC owns KPSF, 1200 AM and 100.9 FM. The only oldies station called Studio 100.9. * KPSF, Studio 100.9
Studio 100.9 Home Page


Infrastructure

The Coachella Valley is served by the following utilities: Electricity *Southern California Edison ''(serves Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, and Cathedral City)'' *Imperial Irrigation District ''(serves La Quinta, Indio, Thousand Palms, Indian Wells, and Coachella)'' Natural gas *Southern California Gas Company Cable Television *Charter Communications, Spectrum Cable


Transportation

Aviation in the area is served by the Palm Springs International Airport in Palm Springs, Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal and Bermuda Dunes Airport, Bermuda Dunes Municipal Airport in Bermuda Dunes. Interstate 10 runs along the northeastern rim of the valley while California State Route 111, State Route 111 runs for about 30 miles along the southwestern rim of the valley and serves as the main arterial highway between almost all Coachella Valley cities. A four-lane expressway now known as California State Route 86, State Highway 86 opened in the early 1990s as a "special" bypass (hence, it was known as California State Route 86S, State Highway 86S until the "S" suffix was dropped) of the former two-lane portion of California State Route 86, Highway 86. Historic signs designating the original route of U.S. Route 99 through the area may be found along present-day Indio Boulevard through Indio and Harrison Street through Coachella. Public transportation in the valley is provided by the SunLine Transit Agency based in Thousand Palms, which was among the country's first transit agencies to totally convert to alternate fuel vehicles, including full-sized buses powered by fuel cells. The Palm Springs Airport provides service to many North American destinations. Amtrak trains serve North Palm Springs and its coaches provide a connection to Metrolink (California), Metrolink Los Angeles regional commuter rail at Moreno Valley station. Greyhound Lines, Greyhound buses link the Valley with the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Calexico, California, Calexico on the Mexican border, and points east.


Notable people

The area has been a magnet for Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood stars since the 1930s when Charles Farrell and Ralph Bellamy founded the Racquet Club of Palm Springs. Bing Crosby would later found the Blue Skies Trailer Park in Rancho Mirage, unique for its expensive trailer homes each with its own individual theme. In the mid-century celebrities known to stop by Palm Springs included Humphrey Bogart, John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Mary Pickford, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Jack Benny, who did numerous broadcasts of his radio show from Palm Springs. Farrell, after whom a street in Palm Springs is named, would later be elected mayor. Farrell Drive is built on the path of the Palmdale Railroad, a narrow-gauge horse-drawn railroad right-of-way originally built to serve the proposed town of Palmdale. The town was never built and the railroad was abandoned after a few years of operation. The ties were used to build one of the area's earliest residences and the Cornelia White House still stands today in downtown Palm Springs. Medal of Honor recipient Captain William McGonagle was a graduate of Coachella High School and made the valley his home after his retirement. Mitchell Paige was another Medal of Honor veteran who lived in Palm Desert and has a middle school in La Quinta named after him. Jacqueline Cochran, founder and director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots lived her last years in Indio. In 2005, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates reportedly bought and owns a home in The Vintage Club Country Club in Indian Wells. Elvis Presley honeymooned in Palm Springs in 1967 and was a frequent visitor as well since he owned a home here from 1970 his death in 1977. Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Dinah Shore were residents of the valley and were instrumental in the creation of three major golf tournaments, the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Golf Tournament, Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (now hosted by comedian and golf aficionado George Lopez) and the Nabisco LPGA respectively. All three have streets named in their honor as does President Gerald Ford, a longtime Rancho Mirage resident and benefactor of the substance abuse center that bears his wife's name, the Betty Ford Center on the campus of the Eisenhower Medical Center, named for general, U.S. president and part-time resident Dwight Eisenhower. The medical center expanded in size by the new Walter Annenberg building named for the valley resident, billionaire, friend of celebrities and philanthropist. Sinatra and his friends, including Dean Martin, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney and Connie Francis were frequent visitors in the close-knit celebrity community of the Coachella Valley in the 1950s and 1960s. The main road into Palm Springs International Airport, named simply "Airport Road", was renamed Kirk Douglas, Kirk Douglas Way on October 17, 2004. Douglas, a major area benefactor, lived in the valley for more than fifty years and is credited with spearheading the drive to modernize the area over those five decades. His son, actor Michael Douglas, is said to own a residence in Palm Springs with his wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were instrumental in forming the exclusive Thunderbird Heights tract in Rancho Mirage, once the home of President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty. According to ''Palm Springs Life'' magazine, that same tract inspired the name in late 1954 for the Ford Thunderbird. The magazine incorrectly cites that a favorite vacation spot for General Motors Corporation, General Motors executives, Palm Desert's Eldorado Country Club, inspired the name for Cadillac Eldorado, Cadillac's top model the year before — though Cadillac had chosen the name five years before the club's founding in an internal competition. Local automotive history indicates that designer Raymond Loewy penned the Studebaker Avanti in his Palm Springs home. Especially since the 1950s, Palm Springs and nearby golf clubs are hailed as the "playground of celebrities". However it is said that celebrities travel or reside in the Palm Springs area inlesser numbers as compared to yesteryear, but the area's "star power" made a comeback in the 2000s. Ball and Arnaz helped finance construction of the Indian Wells Country Club. Founded in 1956 with their winter residence on ''DesiLu Court'', Indian Wells became a major factor in "down valley" growth in the 1970s and 1980s. A mostly gated community, Indian Wells has one of the highest ''per capita'' income of any small town in the United States, while nearby Coachella, a short distance southeast on California State Route 111, State Route 111 is the third poorest city of the 10,000–50,000 population range in the nation, though that is rapidly changing as the area develops. A memorial to Eisenhower can be found on the front lawn of Indian Wells City Hall, also features the local veterans memorial plaque to represent the community's 800 veterans, a high number of war veterans per ratio of its predominantly senior citizen population. Coachella has the Vietnam War veterans' memorial to represent their community's high representation of armed forces volunteers, a large percentage had Spanish surnames since the city's population are over 90 percent Latino. Many other celebrities, past and present, have called the area home such as actor Paul Burke (actor), Paul Burke. Among those who grew up in the area: * Vanessa Marcil is a La Quinta native and attended Indio High School. * Suzanne Somers spent a part of her childhood in Cathedral City and attended Palm Springs High School. * Billy Steinberg grew up in Palm Springs and worked at the Dave Freedman Grape Farm in Thermal. * Alison Lohman is a native of Palm Springs and grew up in Palm Desert. * Tyler Hilton is also a native of Palm Springs and graduated from La Quinta High School. Hilton performed a concert in the school theatre in 2006. * Cameron Crowe grew up in a rural home near Indio. * Rich Newey grew up in Bermuda Dunes. * Alan O'Day grew up in Coachella. * Aubrey O'Day was a 2001 graduate of La Quinta High School (La Quinta, California), La Quinta High School. * Josh Homme attended Palm Desert High School. * Tony Reagins, General Manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, is an Indio native and attended Indio High school. * Ed White (American football), Edward White, football player of the San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings is an Indio native and attended Indio High school. * Jenna Ortega is a native of Indio. U.S. President John F. Kennedy was a frequent guest of Frank Sinatra, and a plaque in one of the pews of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Palm Desert marks the spot where Kennedy would usually sit during Mass. That same area in Palm Desert once served as a training ground for General George Patton, George Patton's United States Army Central, Third Army troops and tank battalions; today, the site is home to the El Paseo shopping district. Patton also trained in a huge plot of desert stretching from Chiriaco Summit, California, Chiriaco Summit just off the eastern end of the valley northward almost to Amboy, California, Amboy along U.S. Route 66 (California), U.S. Route 66 in the Mojave Desert. Tank tracks from those maneuvers are still visible today in the open desert and a museum dedicated to Patton is located in Chiriaco Summit. Patton was also a frequent guest at the Whittier Ranch House in Indio, a grand adobe structure which had faced the possibility of demolition as the ranch lands surrounding it were being developed. A grass roots organization had petitioned the city to preserve the structure for use as a Veterans of Foreign Wars, VFW post; it has instead been restored and retained as the clubhouse for the new Whittier Ranch housing development. It is also now a California state historic site. Sonny Bono ran a restaurant in downtown Palm Springs. Frustrated by the lack of cooperation he faced from the city council over a new sign for the restaurant, the entertainer took matters into his own hands and ran for mayor. He retained local conservative talk radio host Marshall Gilbert (heard regularly on KNWQ) as his campaign manager in a successful bid that not only put Bono back in the public eye, but fueled his later campaign for a seat on the United States Congress, a position he held until his death in a skiing accident in 1998. His widow, Mary Bono, Mary (now Mary Bono Mack), filled the vacancy left by her husband and later campaigned successfully on her own. She was defeated by Democrat Raul Ruiz in the 2012 election, and moved to Florida. Both Sonny Bono and Frank Sinatra are buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City. The La Quinta Resort and Club, a series of bungalows built in 1926 in what was then known as Marshall's Cove is the oldest resort in the valley. Frank Capra wrote the script for 1937 in film, 1937 ''Lost Horizon (1937), Lost Horizon'' poolside there, in the La Quinta Cove where the resort is located. Capra died in La Quinta and is buried in the nearby Coachella Valley Public Cemetery. So fond was Walt Disney of his property at the Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs that he often wore a tie tac which was in the shape of the Smoke Tree Ranch logo. Disney reluctantly sold the property to help finance the construction of Disneyland. ''Partners (statue), Partners'', bronze sculptures of Disney standing next to Mickey Mouse in each of the Disney theme parks clearly show the brand on Disney's tie tac. Clint Eastwood formerly owned a restaurant called the Hog's Breath Inn in Old Town La Quinta. The restaurant is currently owned by the Kaiser Restaurant Group, but maintains the Clint Eastwood inspired motif. TV producer and media mogul Merv Griffin owned a home and ranch which is now part of the PGA West community. It was known as the "Griffin Ranch", but the land was sold and became an equestrian ranch housing tract and was annexed by the city of La Quinta.


In popular culture

Noteworthy and memorable references in popular culture include the animated Looney Tunes short ''Bully for Bugs'' in which Bugs Bunny requests directions to the Coachella Valley "and the big carrot festival therein." An annual carrot festival is in fact held just outside the area in the Imperial County, California, Imperial County town of Holtville, California, Holtville, approximately 70 miles to the southeast. The generation-defining novel ''Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland, describes the angst of those born between roughly 1960 and 1965 (Generation X-ers refers to those born from 1960 to 1982) and is set in the Palm Springs of the late 1980s. A second classic 1980s novel, Less than Zero (novel), ''Less than Zero'', a tale of disaffected, rich teenagers of Los Angeles, has its climactic scenes of excess and despair set in Palm Springs. The film Less than Zero (film), ''Less than Zero'' was made in 1987, directed by Marek Kanievska and starring Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr. and Jami Gertz. Another famous movie filmed in the Coachella Valley (as well as Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms, to the north) is arguably ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World''. It even includes the former Desert Air airport, now the site of the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage. The airfield escape scene in ''A Night in Casablanca'' was filmed at present-day Palm Springs International Airport; Mount San Jacinto is clearly seen in the background. Most of Robert Altman's 1977 avant-garde drama ''3 Women'' was shot in the geographical region surrounding Coachella Valley. Tex Avery made a brief reference to Palm Springs via a Visual gag, sight gag in his 1948 animated short for MGM, ''The Cat That Hated People''. In the showroom of the "Moonbeam Rocket Company", a tiny Spacecraft, rocket ship with a sign showing its intended destination of Palm Springs is shown among a series of large rockets also displaying signs indicating not terrestrial but rather their galactic destinations. The early 1960s would see the movie ''Palm Springs Weekend'' filmed on location. A humorous situation involving four drunk LAPD policemen in a rented aircraft attempting to reclaim a Palm Springs golf course in the name of the local Indian tribes can be found in the 1975 novel, The Choirboys (book), ''The Choirboys''. An episode of ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'' titled "The Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam" announces the upcoming second installment of the episode as "Rimsky & Korsakov Go to Palm Springs, or Song of Indio". In the 1984 music video by Tears for Fears' ''Everybody Wants to Rule the World'' was shot on location in the Coachella Valley. The rock video features scenes of a few local landmarks: the dinosaur structures near Cabazon, the windmill farms, scenery along Interstate 10 and state route 111, a scene of two dancers appear in a gas station on state route 86, and the shores of the Salton Sea. In 1988, "The Race" by Swiss dance band Yello featured a fictitious sportscaster talking about the "thirty-first annual formula race" in Palm Springs. While Palm Springs did briefly host an annual Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix, it ran for considerably fewer than thirty-one years. In the 1990s two television series shows ''P.S. I Luv U'' and Phenom (TV series), ''Phenom'', the characters and plots were set in Palm Springs. In 2006, The CW television network had a teen drama series ''Hidden Palms'' is set in a gated desert community near Palm Springs, although there is a real ''Hidden Palms'' in Palm Desert. By irony, the real gated community is adjacent to Palm Desert High school. In local Tyler Hilton's song "When It Comes", he references Palm Desert's strip of high-class fashion and dining singing, "When I'm cruising El Paseo / In my off-white coup back '65." A majority of the 2007 film ''Alpha Dog'' was shot in Palm Springs. The helicopter scene in ''Mission: Impossible III'' was filmed in the windfarm outside of Palm Springs. The city was mentioned on an episode of Comedy Central's ''Reno 911!'' by sergeant/lieutenant Jim (Doug) Dangle, an openly gay character of the show. He would hang out in Palm Springs, as well in San Francisco and West Hollywood, but he eventually chose Reno, Nevada, Reno as his hometown. In an episode of the animated comedy ''Family Guy'' ''On the Road to Rhode Island'', baby Stewie and his friend, Brian (a talking dog) figured a way to return home from vacation in Lois' parents home in Palm Springs. On ''American Dad!'' Season 2, Episode 4 – ''Lincoln Lover'', Stan Smith said to a speech in the Republican National Convention when representatives of the Gay Log Cabin Republicans were present: "Invite half of Palm Springs...oh, invite everyone in Palm Springs..." based on a belief based on a survey by a demographic think tank on about Half of the city's population are Gay or GLBT people. In the game ''Grand Theft Auto V'', the Coachella Valley area is represented as Sandy Shores in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and therefore some characteristics of Coachella Valley is mirrored in the Sandy Shores area in the game.


References


Further reading

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External links

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Coachella Valley Archaeological Society (CVAS)

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians

Coachella Valley Economic Partnership

United States Bureau of Reclamation: Lower Colorado Region

The Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy

Palm Springs Visitor Information

History of Rancho Mirage and the Coachella Valley

Groundwater Quality in Coachella Vallely, California
United States Geological Survey {{Authority control Coachella Valley, Geography of the Colorado Desert Inland Empire Valleys of Riverside County, California Valleys of California Interstate 10 U.S. Route 99 Southern Pacific Railroad California Enterprise Zones