Dos Palmas Spring is an artesian

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

in Riverside County, California where it lies at the foot of the

Orocopia Mountains The Orocopia Mountains are located in Riverside County in southern California, United States, east of the Coachella Valley, west of the Chuckwalla Mountains, and south of Interstate 10 in the Colorado Desert. The range lies in an east-west dire ...

. It is only one of several such springs in the area that create an oasis in the Colorado Desert there.

History

Dos Palmas Spring, an artesian spring was a watering place in the

Salton Sink The Salton Sink is the low point of an endorheic basin, a closed drainage system with no outflows to other bodies of water, in the Colorado Desert sub-region of the Sonoran Desert. The sink falls within the larger Salton Trough and separates th ...

for Native Americans traveling across the Colorado Desert between 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 ...

and

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 a ...

for centuries. For many years the oasis was a camp and watering spot on a long used trail along the oasis's at the foot of the mountains east of the Salton Sink to the

Yuma Crossing Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also durin ...

and

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

to the southeast. From 1862, it became a camp and watering stop for gold seekers and other travelers along the

Bradshaw Trail Today's Bradshaw Trail is a historic overland stage route in the western Colorado Desert of Southern California. It is a remnant of the much longer Bradshaw Road, also known as the Road to La Paz, or Gold Road, established in 1862 by William D. ...

between

San Bernardino San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...

and the gold mining

boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...

La Paz, Arizona La Paz ( Yavapai: Wi:hela) was a short-lived early gold mining town along on the western border of current-day La Paz County, Arizona. The town grew quickly after gold was discovered nearby in 1862. ''La Paz'', Spanish for ''peace'', was chosen as ...

and later to nearby Ehrenberg that replaced it. A stage stop called Dos Palmas was established there for the Bradshaw and Yuma roads. This spring and stage station was the site of the murder of

Herman Ehrenberg Herman Ehrenberg (October 17, 1816 – October 9, 1866) was a surveyor and Texian soldier who was one of the few survivors of the Goliad Massacre. During his escape, he purportedly yelled "The Republic of Texas forever!", which popularized the c ...

on October 9, 1866. Ornish, Natalie, "Ehrenberg, Herman", Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association, Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Accessed April 10, 2015
/ref> For a short time in May - June, 1877, there was a post office at that location.

Dos Palmas Preserve

The Dos Palmas Spring is now part of the

Dos Palmas Preserve Dos Palmas Preserve is a wildlife preserve in the Colorado Desert in Riverside County, California, in the United States. The preserve is within the Salt Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management ...

a 14,000-acre preserve created to protect important biological resources. The oasis with its hundreds of desert fan palms and pools fed by artesian springs and seepage from the nearby Coachella Canal form a wetland that offers shelter from the hot, dry Colorado Desert to a variety of both threatened or endangered and more common animal species. These include the endangered Yuma Rail, the

Desert Pupfish The desert pupfish (''Cyprinodon macularius'') is a rare species of bony fish in the family Cyprinodontidae. It is a small fish, typically less than 7.62 cm (3 in) in length. Males are generally larger than females, and have bright-blue ...

and the Orocopia Sage.

References

Gary L. Shumway, Larry Vredenburgh, Russell Hartill, Desert Fever: An Overview of Mining History of the California Desert Conservation Area; February, 1980, complete pdf version

** ttp://vredenburgh.org/desert_fever/pages/riverside_county_end_notes.htm Desert Fever: An Overview of Mining History of the California Desert Conservation Area; Riverside County, End Notes
Randall Henderson, Waterhole on the Old Bradshaw Trail, Desert Magazine, January 1947
{{authority control Bodies of water of Riverside County, California Geography of the Colorado Desert Springs of California Former settlements in Riverside County, California Former populated places in California American frontier Stagecoach stops in the United States Bradshaw Trail 1862 establishments in California