From the moment the Coachella Valley looms into view in the distance as one speeds east on
Interstate 10 from the City of Angels, there are limitless sights to see and adventures to be had. So much is offered that it’s difficult not to be single-minded in pursuit of, for example, the best mid-century home tour or fine dining, the hottest pickleball tournament, a pop-up art gallery, or a full day of self-pampering at The Spa at Séc-he. But, if you slow down a bit, you’ll find wonders off the beaten track that are well worth investigating. You might be late for that pickleball tournament.
Cabot’s Pueblo
It takes a little bit of searching, but with some effort, one can find a strange little settlement called Cabot’s Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs. The multi-story, multi-room structure was built by an eccentric homesteader named Cabot Yerxa beginning in 1939. It is made up of 35 rooms,150 windows, 65 doors, and 30 different levels.
Olga Trehub
Just a mere slice of Cabot's sprawling pueblo
Inspired by Hopi-style pueblos, the creation incorporates a bit of the Indigenous Southwest, a brushing of Disney, and a touch of the Winchester Mystery House. Yerxa’s stated intention was to create a roadside attraction to house his extensive collection of Native American art and pottery. He opened the museum in 1950 and called it Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo; he operated it until his death in 1965. Afterward, his wife abandoned this extraordinary and unique slice of desert Americana. Luckily, one of Yerxa’s old friends stepped in and saved the pueblo from complete destruction by vandals. Today, the historic house is owned by the city of Desert Hot Springs and supported by a non-profit corporation called Cabot’s Museum Foundation.
One of the most remarkable things about the museum is its creator. The hermit and desert eccentric with the remarkable moniker was born into a wealthy family in the Upper Midwest; they moved to Pasadena around the turn of the century to be citrus farmers. By all accounts, Cabot had “a wild hair” from birth; he ran off to the Klondike at the age of 16 to make his fortune – not by prospecting, but by selling cigars to miners. After his father’s death in 1910, he took over the family citrus ranch. Three years later, the family was wiped out by a devastating frost. Yerxa decamped to a completely uninhabited patch of desert tohomestead 160 acres in what is now Desert Hot Springs.
Cabot built a home on a hill, which he named Eagle’s Nest, and began what must have seemed a quixotic quest to find water. On either side of a hill he later called Miracle Hill, Yerxa dug down and found two aquifers. One was a hot spring with 110-degree water; on the other side of the hill, he found an aquifer with cold, exceptionally good-tasting water. The discovery of the former made the creation of numerous hot springs spas such as Two Bunch Palms possible.
Cabazon Dinosaurs
It is one of the most deeply touching and philosophical scenes in American cinematic history and one of the great affirmations of never giving up on your dreams. In the 1985 classic movie “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” Pee-wee Herman and Simone (the waitress) crawl up into the nose of a concrete T-Rex; he advises her to follow her dream of visiting Paris.
Olga Trehub
One of many of the Cabazon Critters
The T-Rex, of course, permanently resides at Cabazon Dinosaur Park, located at the last exit before the turnoff to Highway 111. After Paul Reubens, the actor who created Pee-wee, died in July, the owners of the park paid tribute by painting Pee-wee’s signature gray tuxedo with white shirt and red bow tie on Mr. Rex. The first dinosaur (Dinny the Brontosaurus) was created by Claude Bell, an artist who had worked at Knott’s Berry Farm, according to Josh, the manager at Cabazon Dinosaurs. Bell began working on Dinny in 1964 to help attract customers to his restaurant, the Wheel Inn. The body was made with welded steel girders, wire mesh, and concrete. Dinny was finished in 1975. Bell began working on Mr. Rex a couple of years later and finished in 1986. Bell also planned to build a wooly mammoth, but his health declined and he died in 1988 at the age of 91. A private investment firm bought the Dinosaur Park, expanded it, and created a walking park and gift shop where curious tourists can stroll amidst both dinosaur sculptures and animatronic dinosaurs. (Supposedly, the park’s theme became “young Earth creationism” – the belief that the Earth was literally created in six days, according to the Book of Genesis, and that it is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old. Proponents of YEC believe that evolution and Darwinism are evil ideologies. However, these exhibits were removed a number of years ago.) The price of admission at Cabazon Dinosaurs ($15 for adults) allows one to crawl up inside Mr. Rex and sit in his nose, where the great Pee-wee Herman once sat.
Forever Marilyn
It was the most controversial act in memory. For some, it was an utter desecration of all that was tasteful and artistic about the city; for opponents, it represented respect for the thousands of visitors who sought to commune in its presence and have their picture taken to commemorate their visit.
No, it wasn’t the City’s destruction of the low-income neighborhood of Section 14 east of downtown nor was it the erection of a high rise hotel in a city which had formerly forbidden any structure over two stories Nor is it opposition to a proposed Chick-fil-A!
The big hub-bub was because a giant statue of Marilyn Monroe was situated between the Kimpton Rowan Hotel and the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Olga Trehub
Miss Monroe from "The Seven Year Itch"
The statue is called Forever Marilyn; it was designed and built by artist Seward Johnson in 2011. It is 26 feet tall and depicts the scene from the film “The Seven Year Itch” where Monroe’s character stands over a subway grating in New York City in order to get a blast of cool air up her rather flimsy summer dress. Why a sculpture of the actress enjoying a cool NY subway breeze should end up in a place where a typical summer breeze is 115 degrees is a rather contentious story.
The statue was originally displayed in Chicago after it was created. It was moved to Palm Springs (at the corner of Tahquitz Canyon Way and Palm Canyon Drive) in 2012 and remained there for two years. Then, it went its merry Marilyn way to places such as New Jersey, Connecticut, and Australia. Palm Springs Mayor Robert Moon announced in 2019 that Forever Marilyn would return to the city. To the applause of some and the horror of others, the statue was placed in a direct sightline to the Palm Springs Art Museum. The installation was temporarily blocked by a lawsuit, according to a 2021 article in Variety, brought by those who felt the statue was not only sexist and misogynistic but also a slap in the face to everyone exiting the art museum whose first view was her white underwear-clad backside. Supporters of Marilyn’s positioning thought these objectors were prudish and lacked humor and whimsy…not to mention an appreciation for the thousands of tourists who flock to get their pictures take next to her. I swear, I will start throwing things if I see just one more visiting yokel lie down beneath the statue, stare up between her legs, have his buddy take his picture, and come up laughing, actually believing he’s the first person to ever thought of it. A truce was finally reached in July 2024 (in actuality, a victory by the Committee to Relocate Marilyn (CReMA) and it was agreed to move the statue to a corner of the park about 50 yards away, well away from the sightline to the museum.
Shields Date Garden
Nearly 100 years ago, Iowan newlyweds Floyd and Bess Shields founded one of the Valley’s pioneering date farms in Indio. In the early ‘20s, quite a few agricultural adventurers thought they might make their fortunes in the relatively new industry. Just 20 years earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture established an experimental agricultural station in the Coachella Valley to test the viability of dates as crops. The seeds were imported from the Persian Gulf and North Africa. They did well. Shields bred his own varieties, but he needed something to stand out from the crowd.
Floyd came up with the idea of an informative lecture called The Romance and Sex Life of the Date. It was a titillating title, though the reality behind the 15-minute lecture (later made into a film that is still shown today at the Shields store theater) was that it demonstrated the rather laborious process of pollination. Of course, it wasn’t just the promise of a lurid demonstration of date sex that drew in thousands of customers. Shields knew a lot about dates. His dates were awesome. He was also the inventor of date sugar and the date crystal, which made it possible to produce perhaps one of the best date shakes on the planet. An additional bit of marketing genius was the installation of a gigantic blue knight statue holding a shield (with Shields painted on it) and pointing toward the store. I’d stop.
One of the most curious attractions of the Shields operation was installed long after Floyd ascended to date heaven. A couple named William and Lillian Vanderzalm, who owned a biblical garden in Vancouver, Canada, contacted Shields Date Garden with an offer to relocate their statuary to the 17-acre date farm, according to the Shields website. The Holy Land of 2,000 years ago was overgrown with date palms, so to scatter 23 statues among 14 scenes chronologizing Christ’s life makes a certain kind of sense. And, unlike many Valley roadside attractions, it doesn’t cost anything to take a walk around the garden. Just enter the shop, order a date shake to go, and then go out the back door, and there you are. And it’s weird. A very large pond confronts you as you leave the outdoor dining area. Evidently, there is no circulating pump of any kind because the water is stagnant and stinks to high heaven, if you’ll pardon the expression. If you turn to the right, you’ll find a strange little structure meant to house the Last Supper. But only Jesus is there. Judas and the other disciples have all gone home after dinner. It’s hard to understand the chronology. A grisly crucifixion is clear across Lake Aroma overlooking a mobile home park. If you wander further west, there is Jesus with Mary Magdalene and Jesus with the Little Children. But, the further you go, you realize you’re the only one out there. I’ve never seen anyone there. It’s a little eerie. Pretty soon, you realize your date shake is gone and you hold your nose as you walk back by the pond and make a dash to your car.
