In The Desert Cities of Coachella Valley
Coachella Valley
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Photo by Crystle Photography
In 1926, the development of U.S. Route 99 northward through Coachella and Indio and continued westward toward Los Angeles (similar to the current I-10 route) helped further open agriculture, commerce and tourism to the rest of the country. In the early 1930s, the coming of State Highway 111, (which ran diagonally through the valley and connected the major settlements) also contributed to the growth of the area.
Dr. June McCarroll, a nurse with the Southern Pacific Railroad, whose office was on U.S. 99 in Indio, is credited as the first person to initiate a divided highway by painting a stripe down the middle of the road in response to frequent head-on collisions. This standard was refined and adopted worldwide. Doctor McCarroll is memorialized by a stretch of I-10 through Indio named in her honor.
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 went on to found the Blue Skies Trailer Park in Rancho Mirage. Charles Farrell would later be elected mayor of Palm Springs. Farrell Drive is built on the path of the Palmdale Railroad, a narrow-gauge horse-drawn 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 railroad ties were used to build one of the area's earliest residences and the Cornelia White House still stands today in downtown Palm Springs.
Coachella Valley became a major real estate destination in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Some History Highlights of Coachella Valley:
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