Coachella Valley

The Coachella Valley is an irrigated agricultural and recreational desert valley in southern California east of Los Angeles. The valley extends for approximately 45 miles (72 km) in Riverside County southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Salton Sea. It is approximately 15 miles (24 km) wide along most of its length, bounded on the west by the San Jacinto Mountains and the Santa Rosa Mountains and on the north and east by the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The San Andreas Fault crosses the valley from the Chocolate Mountains in the southeast corner and along the centerline of the Little San Bernardinos. The fault is easily visible along its northern length as a strip of greenery against an otherwise bare mountain. The Chocolate Mountains are home to a United States Navy live gunnery range and are mostly off-limits to the public.

Activities and trivia

With more than 350 days of sunshine per year and warm, mild winters - though summer can be quite hot - recreational hiking and horseback riding are popular in the many canyons in the mountains that surround the valley. The area has been a magnet for Hollywood stars since the 1930s when Bing Crosby, Charles Farrell and Ralph Bellamy founded the area's first tennis club in Palm Springs. Crosby would go on to found the Blue Skies Trailer Park in Rancho Mirage, unique for its expensive trailer homes each with its own individual theme.

Related Topics:
Canyons - Hollywood - Bing Crosby - Charles Farrell - Ralph Bellamy

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Farrell, for whom a street in Palm Springs is named after, would later be elected mayor. Farrell Drive is built on the path of an old narrow-gauge 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 short 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.

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More than two hundred golf courses blanket the area, making it one of the world's premier golf destinations. The Merrill Lynch Skins Game is held in La Quinta each Thanksgiving and draws 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's California Adventure theme park. The area is also dotted with classy, Las Vegas-style casinos run by local Indian tribes as well as resort hotels and spas with natural mineral water wells, making it a prime vacation destination as well. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, considered to be one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th Century takes visitors from the valley floor to the Mount San Jacinto mountain station 8516 feet (2595 m) above sea level.

Related Topics:
Merrill Lynch - Skins Game - Thanksgiving - PGA - Soarin' Over California - IMAX - Disney's California Adventure - Las Vegas - Mineral water - Palm Springs Aerial Tramway - Mount San Jacinto

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The area around downtown Palm Springs is home to some of the country's greatest examples of mid-20th Century architecture, much of it designed by famed architect Albert Frey. Notable examples include the Palm Springs City Hall, the Valley Station of the Aerial Tramway and the "flying wedge" gas station at the town's northwest entrance on Highway 111 which now serves as a visitor's center.

Related Topics:
Albert Frey - Highway 111

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Other celebrities

Elvis Presley honeymooned in Palm Springs in 1967 and was a frequent visitor as well; 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 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. The main road into Palm Springs International Airport, named simply "Airport Road," was renamed Kirk Douglas Way on October 17, 2004. Douglas, a major area benefactor, lived in the valley for more than fifty years and currently resides in Montecito. He is credited with spearheading the drive to modernize the area over those ensuing five decades.

Related Topics:
Elvis Presley - 1967 - Frank Sinatra - Bob Hope - Dinah Shore - Golf - Frank Sinatra Celebrity Golf Tournament - Bob Hope Chrysler Classic - Nabisco LPGA - Gerald Ford - Substance abuse - Betty Ford Center - Palm Springs International Airport - Kirk Douglas Way - October 17 - 2004 - Montecito

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More famous names

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were instrumental in forming the exclusive Thunderbird Heights tract in Rancho Mirage where President and Mrs. Ford call home. According to Palm Springs Life magazine, that same tract would loan its name to a new car in late 1954, the Ford Thunderbird. The magazine also cites that a favorite vacation spot for General Motors executives, Palm Desert's Eldorado Country Club, loaned its name to Cadillac's top model the year before. Local automotive history also states that designer Raymond Loewy penned the Studebaker Avanti in his Palm Springs home.

Related Topics:
Lucille Ball - Desi Arnaz - 1954 - Ford Thunderbird - General Motors - Cadillac's - Raymond Loewy - Studebaker Avanti

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Together with William Frawley and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ball and Arnaz helped finance construction of the Indian Wells Country Club. A mostly gated community, Indian Wells has the distinction of having the highest per capita income of any small town in the world while nearby Coachella, a short distance southeast on California State Highway 111 is the third poorest city 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.

Related Topics:
William Frawley - Dwight D. Eisenhower - Gated community - California State Highway 111

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The president and the general

President John F. Kennedy was a frequent guest of Frank Sinatra's, 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's Third Army troops and tank battalions; today, the site is home to the very upscale El Paseo shopping district. Patton also trained in a huge plot of desert stretching from Chiriaco Summit just off the eastern end of the valley northward almost to Amboy along U.S. Highway 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 facing the possibility of demolition as the ranch lands surrounding it are presently being developed. A grass roots organization is petitioning the city to preserve the structure for use as a VFW post.

Related Topics:
John F. Kennedy - George Patton's - Third Army - Chiriaco Summit - Amboy - U.S. Highway 66 - Mojave Desert - VFW

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From recordings to restaurants to Congress

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 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, filled the vacancy left by her husband and later campaigned successfully on her own. Both he and Frank Sinatra are buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City.

Related Topics:
Sonny Bono - United States Congress - 1998 - Mary

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Paradise found

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 Lost Horizon poolside at the La Quinta. Capra is buried in nearby Coachella. So fond was Walt Disney of his property at the Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs that he had the ranch's brand embroidered on all of his neckties. Disney reluctantly sold the property to help finance the construction of Disneyland. Bronze statues of Disney standing next to Mickey Mouse in each of the Disney theme parks clearly show the brand on Walt's tie. The Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy was created by the California Legislature in 1990 to aid in the protection of the surrounding mountains.

Related Topics:
La Quinta Resort and Club - 1926 - Frank Capra - Lost Horizon - Walt Disney - Disneyland - Mickey Mouse - Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy - California Legislature - 1990

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In recent years, the area has become a mecca for fans of alternative rock. The Empire Polo Club in Indio hosts the outdoor Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival each May, drawing thousands of alternative music fans from across the country.

Related Topics:
Alternative rock - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

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