Dos Palmas Spring
| Dos Palmas Spring | |
|---|---|
| Dos Palmas (Spanish) | |
.jpg) Dos Palmas in February 2017. | |
  Location within southern California  Location within California  Location within the United States | |
 Interactive map of Dos Palmas Spring | |
| Name origin | Spanish: Two Palms |
| Location | Colorado Desert (Eastern Coachella Valley) |
| Coordinates | 33°30′32″N 115°49′37″W / 33.509°N 115.827°W |
| Elevation | 80 ft (24 m) |
| Type | Artesian spring |
Dos Palmas | |
|---|---|
| |
 Interactive map of Dos Palmas | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Riverside |
| Mexican Camp | 1823 |
| Stagecoach Stop | 1862 |
| Abandoned | 1877 |
| Named for | Fan Palms |
| GNIS feature ID | 241575 |
Dos Palmas Spring (Spanish: Dos Palmas) is an artesian spring at the foot of the Orocopia Mountains in Riverside County, California. It is the most prevalent and historic Spring of several such springs in the area that create an oasis in the Colorado Desert.[1] The spring was a crucial stagecoach stop on the Bradshaw Trail.
History
[edit]Dos Palmas Spring, an artesian spring was a watering place in the Salton Sink for Native Americans traveling across the Colorado Desert between the Colorado River and Southern California for centuries. For many years the oasis was a camp and watering spot on a long used trail along the oasis's at the foot of the mountains east of the Salton Sink to the Yuma Crossing and Yuma, Arizona to the southeast.
Romero expeditions
[edit]
In December 1823, under orders from California Governor Luis Antonio Argüello, Lieutenant José María Estudillo & Captain José Romero led an expeditionary military force from Mission San Gabriel, to find an overland route from San Gabriel to Tucson, after the main southern trail closed in 1781 after a massacre of Spanish settlers perpetrated by Yuma natives. The Party tracked east through the San Gorgonio Pass into the Colorado Desert and was encountered and escorted by Cahuillas following the Cahuilla–Halchidhoma trail to Dos Palmas Oasis. The Mexican Expeditionary force camped at the spring from December 30, 1823 to January 4, 1824.
In January 1847, Mexican Californio resistance leader José María Flores made use of the trail and escaped to Sonora with around 36 Mexican soldiers after their defeat at the Battle of La Mesa. Romero followed the Cahuilla–Halchidhoma trail, passing east of the San Gorgonio Pass into Dos Palmas, then across the Algodones Dunes, and finally reached the Yuma Crossing. At the time, the Americans did not know about this route, which ensured his safety from being apprehended by the American military.
Smith Survey
[edit]In September 1857, as part of petitioning the John Butterfield mail route to pass from Yuma to San Bernardino, instead of Los Angeles or San Diego, a public petition was presented to the board of Supervisors asking that a road be surveyed from San Bernardino to the frontier of the Colorado Desert into Yuma. Dr. Isaac W. Smith from San Gorgonio Pass was elected to lead the survey; Smith had retraced Flores' route 7 years earlier. This expedition was named the "Smith Survey".
In Summer 1858, during the June–August months, Warren Hall, the Southern California Division Superintendent, organized a working party to set up water points and sink wells, and to build stage stations along the trail. Stations were erected at White Water and Agua Caliente. In August, efforts were abandoned after finding it impossible to develop water stops over the one hundred miles of wagon road between Dos Palmas and Yuma, through the arid Algodones Dunes. The Butterfield Overland Mail was not awarded to San Bernardino.
Stagecoach stop
[edit]From 1862, it became a camp and watering stop for gold seekers and other travelers along the Bradshaw Trail between San Bernardino and the gold mining boomtown of La Paz, Arizona and later to nearby Ehrenberg that replaced it. A stage stop called Dos Palmas was established there for the Bradshaw and Yuma roads.[2] This spring and stage station was the site of the murder of Herman Ehrenberg on October 9, 1866.[3]
For a short time in May – June, 1877, there was a post office at that location.[4]: 147–158
Preservation area
[edit]The Dos Palmas Spring is now part of the Dos Palmas Preserve a 14,000-acre preserve created to protect important biological resources. The oasis with its hundreds of desert fan palms and pools fed by artesian springs and seepage from the nearby Coachella Canal form a wetland that offers shelter from the hot, dry Colorado Desert to a variety of both threatened or endangered and more common animal species. These include the endangered Yuma Rail, the Desert Pupfish and the Orocopia Sage.[5]
References
[edit]- ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Dos Palmas Spring
- ↑ Delmer Ross, Gold Road to La Paz, An Interpretive Guide to the Bradshaw Trail, Tales of the Mojave Road Pub. Co; 1992, pp.53-76
- ↑ Ornish, Natalie, "Ehrenberg, Herman", Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association, Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Accessed April 10, 2015
- ↑ Frickstad, Walter N., A Century of California Post Offices 1848-1954, Philatelic Research Society, Oakland, CA. 1955.
- ↑ "Dos Palmas Preserve; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT website accessed April 12, 2015". Archived from the original on March 25, 2015. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
External links
[edit]- Gary L. Shumway, Larry Vredenburgh, Russell Hartill, Desert Fever: An Overview of Mining History of the California Desert Conservation Area; February, 1980, complete pdf version
- Gary L. Shumway, Larry Vredenburgh, Russell Hartill, Desert Fever: An Overview of Mining History of the California Desert Conservation Area; Riverside County, February, 1980
- Randall Henderson, Waterhole on the Old Bradshaw Trail, Desert Magazine, January 1947