Our recent newsletters have profiled some of Cabot Yerxa’s neighbors in the landscape that decades later became Desert Hot Springs. We would be remiss to move on to other topics without paying tribute to a person who lived in Palm Springs but whose friendship and company Cabot regularly enjoyed during his homesteading days: Carl Eytel. With a seemingly infinite capacity …

As recounted in our recent newsletters, a host of hardy individuals embraced the desert’s simple living in the early 20th century. Clearly, in our tech-enabled world, we would find surviving as they did quite complicated. “Simple” refers to a scarcity of material goods and the concept that a luxury comprised something like watching the sun set behind the San Jacinto …

Cabot Pueblo Museum’s book On the Desert Since 1913 collects Cabot Yerxa’s newspaper columns recounting his homesteading days. We can learn from Cabot about the personalities and activities of desert pioneers such as Bob Carr (featured in last week’s newsletter). But, this week, we’re looking at what might lead a former cowboy from South Dakota to homestead in the Southern …

Our past two newsletters have profiled Dutch Frank and Hilda Gray: individuals who, like Cabot Yerxa, homesteaded in Desert Hot Springs. Cabot held his “neighbors” in high regard. But his strongest bond was with Bob Carr, with whom he envisioned a “spa city” based on their discovery of hot springs. The following comes from stitched-together excerpts of Cabot’s “On the …

In last week’s newsletter, we introduced you to one of Cabot Yerxa’s fellow Desert Hot Springs pioneers: a prospector known as Dutch Frank. Again aggregating and editing sections of Cabot’s “On the Desert Since 1913” newspaper columns for this communication, we offer the following profile of an individual who set a shining example not just for her gender, but for …