Heading to California

 We paused on our way to CA to enjoy lunch and conversation with Joe, a longtime RV friend.  Then we headed to Indio for the last few days of this trip.

We met Carl and Louise, friends from home at the beautiful La Quinta Cliff House which really is in a cliff. You can see why it is so named.   The atmosphere is as good as the food and the conversation was also great.

On Carl and Louise’s recommendation, we went to Desert Hot Springs to tour the Cabot Old Indian Adobe. 

 This is a place that is due to the dreams and efforts of one man, Cabot Yerxa, the son of Minnesota grocers.

Dropping out of school at 16, he went to Alaska and opened a cigar and candy shop, went to Cuba to work with his family, married and had a son, and grew citrus.  If that wasn’t enough, when he enlisted during WWI, he became Eisenhower’s Mess Sgt.  After the war, he got divorced and moved to Paris to study art. 

While doing all that, he took advantage of the government’s offer to homestead 160 acres in the desert.  He walked seven miles to get water until he acquired a mule.  Then a Cahuilla Indian told him there was a well on his property.  The well was alkaline but he had dug another and no longer had to travel for water.  What he discovered was well waters varying from 132 degrees to ice cold  that are now used in the spas of the area.  He enlisted the help of L. W. Coffee, an LA developer, and Desert Hot Springs had its beginnings.

 This is the history, but it is his 5000 square foot home with 35 rooms, 65 doors and 150 individualized windows (because most of them are made from broken glass panels fit together like a puzzle) that is the fulfillment of his dream.  The home is made from adobe he mixed by adding cement to the soil since the dirt here is not really fit to make adobe.  Building materials consisted of recycled materials he gather from where ever he went, such a cardboard roller used for printing newspapers that he used for insulation.

 One room has a dirt floor in tribute to the Hopi belief in living closer to the earth.
To combat the heat of the desert, he devised a system of having small windows on opposite walls.  The air that entered pushed the indoor hot air up making the rooms cooler.  There are many creations in the home that he developed or copied by studying construction manuals. 

Cabot was a great supporter of rights for Native Americans and helped them recover homeland.

He intended this home as a museum and trading post.  He lived here with his second wife until his death in 1965.  On his death, she left the home and it fell into disrepair until it was bought by Cole Erod who restored it and later gave it to the city to continue to be a museum.

The home contains paintings by Cabot, books collected by Portia, his second wife, and art they collected.

 This carving is called Shumash, by Samu, portrays the two-faced white man who agrees to one thing but winks at the idea at the same time.  The snakes are the poisoned soul and brain of the white man.

Waokiye, traditional helper, was carved by Hungarian-born Peter “Wolf” Toth.  It is carved of a 45-ton giant Sequoia that had been struck by lightening.  Toth has carved Native American sculptures in all 50 states.  Some no longer stand but to find one near you just look up his name.  The carvings are awesome to see.

The view from the adobe is also amazing.

 

As a parting gift, we each got a bottle of Desert Hot Springs internationally awarded water and it did taste very good.  This pueblo wound up being a surprisingly excellent side trip.


We came to this area to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Jacob, grandson of close friends Steve and Rita.  We were invited to a dinner before the Friday night services.  Coincidentally, it was held at the same restaurant where we had dined the previous night.  Few restaurants are worth dining twice in a row but this one was.

We felt great pleasure in being part of the celebration of this wonderful event with our friends from back home.