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During your visit, do not miss the following attractions, Downtown Palm Springs/Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Indian Canyons, Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, and Soak City U.S.A. Palm Springs. Palm Springs is a famed Riverside County, California, desert resort city, approximately 110 miles ... more »
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Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Boomers! Coyote Ridge Stable Desert IMAX Theatre Downtown Palm Springs/Palm Canyon Dr George S. Patton Memorial Museum Indian Canyons Living Desert Zoo & Gardens McCallum Adobe Moorten Botanical Garden Oasis Date Gardens Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Palm Springs Air Museum Palm Springs Desert Museum Palm Springs Walk of Stars Soak City U.S.A. Palm Springs
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Airports During your visit, do not miss the following attractions, Downtown Palm Springs/Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, Indian Canyons, Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, and Soak City U.S.A. Palm Springs.
Palm Springs is a famed Riverside County, California, desert resort city, approximately 110 miles east of Los Angeles. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 42,807. Palm Springs possesses some of the most famous golf courses in the country. Swimming, tennis, horseback riding, and hiking in the nearby desert and mountain areas are other major forms of recreation in Palm Springs. It is one of nine adjacent cities that make up the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area). The area code for Palm Springs is 760. The ZIP codes for Palm Springs are 92262 through 92264.
Once known as the "Playground of the Stars," Palm Springs is a small city with the legacy, amenities, and history of a large, cosmopolitan city. Palm Springs lies at the foot of one of Southern California's most majestic mountain peaks, 10,834-foot-tall Mount San Jacinto, whose eastern flank abuts downtown. It is not unusual to swim in 80 degree weather while looking up at snow covered peaks.
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is composed of two lineages of Cahuilla Indians (panik and kauasik) whose traditional territories encompass modern day Palm Springs. The Agua Caliente Indian Reservation was established by the United States Government in 1876 and 1877. The reservation occupies 32,000 acres, of which 6,700 acres lie within the city limits. Agua Caliente Indian Reservation lands were granted in alternating squares laid out in a checkerboard pattern.
Hot Springs
The Cahuilla name for the area was "Se-Khi" (hot springs). Spanish explorers named the area "Agua Caliente" (hot water). The current name for the area, "Palm Springs," was likewise preceded by the name "Palm City" which appeared on the town's first official survey map. References to "springs" and "hot water" in historical place-names revolve around the hot spring waters located beneath Indian Canyon Way at Tahquitz Canyon Way, which are pumped and redirected to spa facilities at the same location. The hot spring has played an important role throughout the history of the tribe and the City. According to Cahuilla mythology, the hot spring is a place of power and healing where nukatem (powerful beings) dwell and a source from which shamans obtained their power.
Palm Springs Heyday
Popular opinion generally earmarks the period ranging from the 1930s to the 1970s as Palm Springs' heyday. During these years, popular culture and residential development flourished thanks to an influx of wealth, originating most notably from the Hollywood film industry. Hollywood's visible and influential penchant for Palm Springs living would in turn perpetuate Palm Springs' national reputation as a place of health, relaxation, wealth, and glamor. Palm Springs came to be home and a favorite destination, if only seasonally, to many of Hollywood's most glamorous stars. Major stars and celebrities such as Al Jolson, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Liberace, Howard Hughes, Bob Hope, Elvis Presley, Debbie Reynolds, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Sonny Bono, Cher, Kirk Douglas, Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin owned homes in Palm Springs during this period. In addition to film and stage personalities, the Palm Springs area has been frequently visited and settled by United States Presidents Dwight David Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.
Retirement Community
As the 1970s drew to a close, increasing numbers of retirees began moving to the Coachella Valley. As a result, Palm Springs began to evolve from a virtual ghost town in the summer to a year-round retirement community. Businesses and hotels that formerly shuttered for the months of July and August instead remained open all summer. As commerce grew, so too did the number of families with children. Sadly however, the immediate post mid-century period was marked by decades of economic decline which continued throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
Indian Gambling
Also greatly contributing to Palm Springs' economic revival was arrival of Indian gaming operations, profits from which are redirected to employ a substantial number of employees in various business enterprises owned and operated by the Agua Caliente Band. The tribe also contributes a percentage of its profits to philanthropic causes and local infrastructure, such as the City of Palm Springs Fire Department, Palm Springs Public Library, and the Boys and Girls Club of the Coachella Valley.
* Palm Springs is sheltered by the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the north, the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south, and the San Jacinto Mountains to the west. This geography gives Palm Springs its famed warm, dry climate, with 354 days of sunshine and less than 6 inches of rain annually. Winter temperatures average in the 70s with nights in the low-to-mid 40s, but the dry desert heat of summer pushes daytime temperatures well above 100, with overnight temperatures in the mid-to-upper 70s. In general, very high temperatures in the summer are made bearable by the dryness of the desert heat. Summer evenings and nights are very pleasant.
Temperature - Yearly Average
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Distances are calculated as the crow flies, and are provided as an aid in planning only.
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
