Mecca, California

Mecca is an unincorporated community located in Riverside County, California, United States. The desert community lies on the north shore of the Salton Sea in the Eastern Coachella Valley and is surrounded by agricultural land.

Geography and climate

Situated in the Colorado Desert, Mecca has a hot arid climate (Köppen ''BWh''), experiencing an annual average maximum temperature of . Low temperatures can reach below . The community sits under below sea level on the edge of the Salton Sea.

Land developers intending to irrigate the desert with water from the Colorado River did not foresee excess snow melt, and for two years from 1905 to 1906 accidentally re-routed the entirety of the river to the Salton Sink, flooding the salt mines that had been a source of salt for perhaps centuries and giving rise to the Salton Sea. Groundwater and water transported via the Coachella Canal have transformed the desert environment into large swaths of agricultural land.

The highest temperature recorded in Mecca was on September 2, 1950 and June 26, 1990, holding the record for the highest temperature recorded on Earth in September until it reached in Death Valley in 2022. Annual rainfall averages , with the wettest "rain year" being from July 1991 to June 1992 when fell, and the driest from July 1995 to June 1996 with only . The wettest month has been September 1976 with , and the wettest day September 11, 1976 with – one-third more than the average annual rainfall.

Landmarks

The focal point of the community is the Mecca Family and Farm Worker's Service Center. In 1999, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., filed 30 complaints of discrimination against Riverside County. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development investigated the complaints and determined that Riverside County's housing policies and code enforcement activities demonstrated a pattern of discrimination against Latino renters and homeowners. The county agreed to construct the Farmworker Service Center as part of a multimillion-dollar settlement agreement entered into to avoid further litigation. The Farmworker Service Center was inaugurated in 2005 and houses a health clinic, day care facility, offices for the Economic Development Department, and provides information and referrals to government services that can be accessed by the community's largely farmworker population.

Following the construction of the Farmworker Service Center, the county committed to other investments including the Mecca-North Shore Community Library and the Mecca Fire Station, both inaugurated in 2011.

Also in 2011, the Boys & Girls Club of Coachella Valley opened its biggest unit in California. Located next door to the Mecca Community Service Center, the club presently hen?serves c. 350 children from Mecca and surrounding areas.

Waste and landfill

The Mecca Landfill II is located on 66th Avenue in Mecca. It handles 452,182 cubic yards of waste and has an expected closure date in 2098.

The Mecca Remediation Facility, which handles contaminated soil, is located on Gene Welmas Way in Mecca. The facility is operated by Scape Group, Inc. Since 2009, the facility accepted contaminated soil, treated sewage sludge, soy whey, and other organic compostables. In 2011, residents' complaints of offending smells resembling rotten eggs, human waste, raw sewage, burnt motor oil, and petroleum traced back to sulfur compounds from the soy whey pond operated by Waste Reduction Technologies (WRT).

Government

In the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, Thousand Palms is in 4th District, Represented by Democrat V. Manuel Perez Supervisor of the 4th District

In the California State Legislature, Mecca is in , and in .

In the United States House of Representatives, Mecca is in .

In popular culture

Mecca was a featured location in Roger Corman's 1966 film ''The Wild Angels'', starring Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra and Bruce Dern. This film inspired the outlaw biker film genre, and marks Peter Fonda's first appearance as a biker - three years prior to ''Easy Rider''.
Mecca was also the setting for the 1990 neo-noir film After Dark, My Sweet, directed by James Foley and starring Jason Patric, Bruce Dern, and Rachel Ward.

Susan Straight's novel, ''Mecca'', is set in the community.

History

Indigenous Cahuilla

For many eras, the Desert Cahuilla's native home was the Coachella Valley. The Cahuillas would travel from their village in Martinez to Dos Palmas Spring via an ancient Native American trail known as the Cocomaricopa/Halchidoma Trail. This trail traversed just south of the town of Mecca.

Spanish Explorers

Spanish Explorer Melchior Diaz is the first non-indigenous person to set foot and explore inland California in December 1540 near the Yuma Crossing and Imperial Valley (95 miles southeast from Mecca).

Legend of Juan de Iturbe's Lost Pearl Ship in the Desert is a local legend that after the 1862 Great flood locals reported seeing an ancient Spanish galleon that had beached during a voyage at New Spain's northernmost frontier of water the ancient Lake Cahuilla in 1615. In reported cases, the ship was allegedly seen near Salt Creek (South of Mecca).

Juan Bautista de Anza led a colonizing expedition in 1774, from Mission San Xavier del Bac (Tucson) to San Gabriel Mission (Los Angeles). Anza traveled through the Imperial Valley just south of Mecca and encountered the native Cahuillas becoming the first Spanish to make contact with the Cahuillas.

Spanish missionaries from the San Gabriel Mission in Los Angeles would make the long journey to collect salt from brine pools near the northern Salton sink (South of Mecca) known as the evaporating ancient Lake Cahuilla in 1810.

Mexican 1823 Expedition

In 1823 under orders from the Mexican Emperor Agustín de Iturbide to reopen a land route (closed by an Indian Revolt In 1871) from Alta California to Sonora, Captain José Romero and José María Estudillo documented the first recorded expedition into the Coachella Valley. They traversed the Halchidoma Trail and were escorted by the Cahuilla to Dos Palmas Spring(Near Mecca) reaching it on December 31, 1823. They camped for four days before advancing East. Romero's party returned to the Eastern Coachella Valley after getting lost near Palen Lake.

Bradshaw Trail

in 1862 William D. Bradshaw connected La Paz Gold mines to Los Angeles using the prehistoric Indian Halchidoma Trail and renaming it the Bradshaw Trail. This trail was used by many travelers traversing from Arizona to California. The railroad would eventually replace the stagecoach trail in the late 1870s. The Stagecoach stop of ''Lone Palm'' was located South of Mecca near the town of North Shore.

Southern Pacific Rail Road / Walters Station

Southern Pacific constructed a railroad connecting Yuma to Los Angeles. The railroad was completed in 1869. A Railroad Station named Walters was erected and soon the town of Mecca began to populate in the 1870's.

Date Palms

In the late 1890s, the Date Palm was introduced to the Coachella Valley. The plant was farmed in Mecca to a success after the Climate in the town was similar to the plant's native climate in the Middle East.

Salton Sea

From 1905 to February 1907, the Colorado River overflowed into the Salton Sink which had an ancient history of previous lake iterations. This time, the engineering disaster led to the creation of the modern Salton Sea. The flood waters never made it to Mecca although it came close to the Town.

Hurricane Kathleen

On September 7, 1976, a hurricane had a destructive impact on the entire Coachella Valley. This event and further floods in the 1980s stalled progress in the eastern Coachella Valley. In recent history, Mecca has been solidified as an agricultural center for the Eastern Coachella Valley.

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Mecca had a population of 8,219. The population density was . The racial makeup of Mecca was 22.4% White, 0.5% African American, 4.4% Native American, 0.4% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 55.1% from other races, and 17.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 98.0% of the population.

The census reported that 99.8% of the population lived in households, 15 people (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized.

There were 1,895 households, out of which 62.4% included children under the age of 18, 61.5% were married-couple households, 6.0% were cohabiting couple households, 19.1% had a female householder with no partner present, and 13.4% had a male householder with no partner present. 7.7% of households were one person, and 2.3% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 4.33. There were 1,674 families (88.3% of all households).

The age distribution was 34.7% under the age of 18, 12.8% aged 18 to 24, 26.3% aged 25 to 44, 20.1% aged 45 to 64, and 6.0% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 26.6years. For every 100 females, there were 106.9 males.

There were 2,001 housing units at an average density of , of which 1,895 (94.7%) were occupied. Of these, 44.2% were owner-occupied, and 55.8% were occupied by renters.

49% of Mecca residents are employed in agricultural work. The community's population fluctuates several times throughout the year with up to an additional 5,000 seasonal farmworkers coming into Mecca to serve the valley's winter and summer harvesting seasons.

Mecca has an elementary school, but no public high school. 1.4% of residents hold a college degree, with 17.7% continuing education after high school, ranking Mecca as the 17th least-educated city in the United States.

References

Further reading

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External links

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Census-designated places in Riverside County, California
Populated places in the Colorado Desert
Coachella Valley
Census-designated places in California