Zoe Barranco (Zoë Barracano / February 13, 2009) |
Friday March 05, 2004
The Kids' Reading Room He found life in the desert
Home Edition, Calendar, Page E-38 Calendar Desk 8 inches; 318 words
By Jennifer James, Times Staff Writer
Have you ever heard the phrase "rugged individualist"? A rugged individualist is a person of great strength and purpose, someone who respects the rights of others but does not always do things the way people expect.
Such a man was Cabot Yerxa. He was one of the first homesteaders to settle in California's Coachella Valley. In 1913, he paid the government $10 for 160 acres of isolated desert in what is today Desert Hot Springs. Cabot Yerxa became a friend to the Native Americans who lived there, and they in turn liked and trusted him.
With his beloved burro named Merry Christmas, Yerxa would often walk 14 miles round-trip to the railroad station for water. One day, one of his Indian friends said, "There is water here -- just dig a hole." Yerxa dug the hole and became the first European to discover the hot mineral water that would one day make Desert Hot Springs famous.
There was a source of cold water too, and it has won many awards over the years. Just recently it was rated the third-purest drinking water in the world.
When he was 60 years old, Yerxa started work on his pueblo. He built it from stone and mud, in the style of the Hopi tribe. It had 35 rooms, 150 windows, 65 doors and was four stories high. He built it as a monument to his Indian friends. At his death at age 83, he was still working on it.
The pueblo still stands alone on a hillside in the eerie desert silence. A giant Indian carved out of a redwood tree stands straight and tall, perhaps waiting for Cabot Yerxa to reclaim his land and finish what he started.
You can visit the Yerxa pueblo and see other artifacts at Cabot's Pueblo Museum, 67-616 E. Desert View Ave., in Desert Hot Springs.
The Kids' Reading Room He found life in the desert
Home Edition, Calendar, Page E-38 Calendar Desk 8 inches; 318 words
By Jennifer James, Times Staff Writer
Have you ever heard the phrase "rugged individualist"? A rugged individualist is a person of great strength and purpose, someone who respects the rights of others but does not always do things the way people expect.
Such a man was Cabot Yerxa. He was one of the first homesteaders to settle in California's Coachella Valley. In 1913, he paid the government $10 for 160 acres of isolated desert in what is today Desert Hot Springs. Cabot Yerxa became a friend to the Native Americans who lived there, and they in turn liked and trusted him.
With his beloved burro named Merry Christmas, Yerxa would often walk 14 miles round-trip to the railroad station for water. One day, one of his Indian friends said, "There is water here -- just dig a hole." Yerxa dug the hole and became the first European to discover the hot mineral water that would one day make Desert Hot Springs famous.
There was a source of cold water too, and it has won many awards over the years. Just recently it was rated the third-purest drinking water in the world.
When he was 60 years old, Yerxa started work on his pueblo. He built it from stone and mud, in the style of the Hopi tribe. It had 35 rooms, 150 windows, 65 doors and was four stories high. He built it as a monument to his Indian friends. At his death at age 83, he was still working on it.
The pueblo still stands alone on a hillside in the eerie desert silence. A giant Indian carved out of a redwood tree stands straight and tall, perhaps waiting for Cabot Yerxa to reclaim his land and finish what he started.
You can visit the Yerxa pueblo and see other artifacts at Cabot's Pueblo Museum, 67-616 E. Desert View Ave., in Desert Hot Springs.
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