Indian Wells is a former settlement in

Imperial County Imperial Count (german: Reichsgraf) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. In the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It was located south-southwest of Seeley. Indian Wells was a watering place between two

Laguna Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to: People * Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay * Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist * Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...

s on the New River found by the Kearny and

Cooke Cooke is a surname derived from the occupation of cook. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexander Cooke (died 1614), English actor * Alfred Tyrone Cooke, of the Indo-Pakistani wars * Alistair Cooke KBE (1908–2004), British-American j ...

Expediditons in 1846. They were subsequently used from the time of the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

as a watering place on the Southern Emigrant Trail crossing the

Colorado Desert California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna. Geography and geology The Colorado De ...

. Its location is described by the 1854-55 Railroad Expedition report:

From Sackett's to the Colorado river the desert appears to the unaided eye a perfect level, but it is shown to be undulating, and composed of several gentle slopes or swells of surface rising to a level terrace in the vicinity of Alamo Mocho. The two "lagoons" on the desert being now dry, water is obtained from a well dug in the channel which connects them, at a point about half way between, and 14.5 miles from Sackett's. This watering place is known by the name of "Indian Wells." The water is at a depth of about 30 feet, and is of tolerable quality. From here to Alamo Mocho is a stretch of 20 miles without water, over a surface generally even and free of obstructions."

Indian Wells was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Stage line. The Indian Wells post office, located west of

El Centro El Centro (Spanish for "The Center") is a city and county seat of Imperial County, California, United States. El Centro is the largest city in the Imperial Valley, the east anchor of the Southern California Border Region, and the core urban are ...

operated from 1876 to 1877. The site of Indian Wells was obliterated by the 1906 flood of the New River, when 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 drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

changed course and filled 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 Gulf o ...

, scouring a deeper and wider channel for the New River. Tom Jonas, Wells in the Desert, Retracing the Mexican War Trails of Kearny and Cooke through Baja California, The Journal of Arizona History, Vol. 50, No. 3, Autumn 2009
, p. 292 and note 40

References

External links

View of the Indian Wells Stagecoach station, (ca. 1936) 1931/1941, San Diego History Center (formerly San Diego Historical Society)
from calisphere.org. Photo of the ruin of the Indian Wells Stage Station taken by persons unknown obtained by the Society between 1931 and 1941 but it must have been taken before the 1906 flood of the New River. Former settlements in Imperial County, California Former populated places in California San Antonio–San Diego Mail Line Butterfield Overland Mail in California American frontier Stagecoach stops in the United States {{OldWest-stub