While we have been known to move around a lot in the style of a comedic witness protection program, this is the first time we have actually written about our current hometown. That says something about La Quinta, California.
Located in the Coachella Valley surrounded by the Colorado Desert, La Quinta was founded as a city on May 1, 1982. The La Quinta Resort, which the city is named after, was established in 1926. Like most cities before their incorporation, its history runs much deeper. Let’s get into it.
Long before La Quinta, popularly known as the Gem of the Desert, was a twinkle in a California developer’s eye, the Cahuilla tribe lived in a village consisting of small tribal settlements around Ancient Lake Cahuilla for millennia.
According to Cahuilla creation stories, La Quinta is the cradle of civilization where all life began.
This prehistoric lake was located in the Salton Trough, which is a tectonic depression in the desert landscape. Lake Cahuilla formed multiple times as the Colorado River diverted its flow into the Salton Trough. The freshwater lake periodically reached over 100 miles long and 30 miles wide, with a 300 feet depth. Its surface area was over six times the size of today’s Salton Sea.
Lake Cahuilla went through many cycles of filling and drying out over thousands of years. A new study used radiocarbon dating to determine the timing of the last seven periods of filling during the Late Holocene.
The humongous lake had completely evaporated by the time Spanish explorers came to the area around 1774. The Cahuilla tribe preserved the great body of water’s history in the oral tradition. Shell fossils can still be found in the area, primarily freshwater mussels and snails.
Ancient Lake Cahuilla was sometimes referenced as Lake LeConte or Blake Sea on early maps. In 1853, during a U.S. Government exploration for a transcontinental railroad route, Professor William Phipps Blake documented the geological features of the area, including the remnants of Lake Cahuilla.
The high water line of ancient Lake Cahuilla is still visible south of La Quinta along the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains, especially in the area from La Quinta to the Salton Sea. It’s marked by a whitish travertine deposit, a clear contrast to the reddish-brown desert varnish. This shoreline is about 40 feet above sea level.
A reservoir was created in 1969 by damming a portion of a natural drainage channel that is part of the historical Salton Basin to create a modern 135 acre cement-lined lake at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains called Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park, six miles southeast of La Quinta. The Lake Cahuilla Reservoir is part of the Coachella Valley Water District.
Also notable in the area is a natural phenomenon known as the Martinez Slide, a gigantic landslide named for a Cahuilla village located on the east flank of the Santa Rosa Mountains. The slide was caused by an earthquake of at least a magnitude seven that occurred sometime before the year 1680. The debris flow released in the slide covers nearly 2,000 acres, or three square miles. It remains the second largest rockslide in North America.
Early explorers discovered the shelter and serenity of the coves at the base of the thirty miles long Santa Rosa Mountain range. The area provided a natural water aquifer, shelter from Santa Ana winds caused by seasonal changes in air pressure, and protection from periodic flash floods.
The shade from the mountains offered relief from the intense heat and glare of late summer afternoons. Gilman, and Indio soils, layers of fine sandy loam, silt loam, and loamy sand, was excellent for raising crops.
Word traveled faster than a summer dust devil in the desert on a hot, sunny day. By the early 1900s, eager settlers began arriving.
‘Wonders of the Colorado Desert‘ by George Wharton James, 1906. Public Domain.
In 1902, John Marshall, along with his brother-in-law Albert Green, both paint retailers from Los Angeles, acquired 160 acres of land from the Southern Pacific Railroad along Avenue 52 in La Quinta. Marshall settled onto a larger Marshall Ranch around 1920.
La Quinta’s early development featured leased or purchased 80 and 160 acres homesteads. Dates were a popular and profitable crop. Citrus grew well too. According to author and explorer George Wharton James in 1906, cantaloupes, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, Bermuda onions, figs, and pomegranates grew plentifully in the Coachella Valley.
A nearby train station in Coachella transported the produce to Easterners, hungry for exotic fruits and vegetables. La Quinta had an airstrip near the intersection of Eisenhower and Avenue 50 before La Quinta became a city.
After Marshall’s death in in 1938, his son, Harry, sold the property to William Starke Rosecrans, grandson of Civil War Union General William Starke Rosecrans, who renamed the ranch Hacienda del Gato after a gray cat saved his wife from a rattlesnake strike.
The property passed through the hands of many developers, including Fritz Burns. The site has been the home of Tradition Golf Club since 1996. World-famous golf pro Arnold Palmer resided there. A popular restaurant in La Quinta still carries his name. Hacienda del Gato today is an administrative building at Tradition.
Point Happy Ranch. Courtesy of La Quinta Historical Society.
Norman “Happy” P. Lunbeck, former night watchman and inventor from Santa Maria, settled Point Happy in 1907. He homesteaded the area and established what later became known as “Point Happy Ranch.” [Note: Although some sources spell his name with an added letter ‘d’ in his name, it is actually spelled Lunbeck according to his voter registration and 1900s census.]
Happy and his wife, Anna Scott, were married in January 1912, and lived and worked on the idyllic property. Their wedded life together however would be cut short when he died later that same year after being kicked by a horse. They had no children.
One of the first water wells in La Quinta at Point Happy. Courtesy of Coachella Valley Historical Society.
Anna Lunbeck sold the ranch circa 1915, then the Clarkes bought the property in the early 1930s. Chauncey D. Clarke marketed some of the first Deglet Noor dates in the state.
Clarke’s purebred Arabian stallion was featured in silent movies starring Ruldoph Valentino. In 1926, Clarke sold his stable of fine Arabians to the W.K. Kellogg Ranch in Pomona. Arabians are still raised on the property, which is now recognized as the home of California Polytechnic University, Pomona, which also happens to be John’s alma mater, Cal Poly Class of 1988.
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, founded in 1974, was built at the southernmost part of Point Happy Ranch.
Note: There is a stagecoach shaped marker at the intersection of Washington Street and Point Happy Way, on the right when traveling south on Washington Street dedicated to Point Happy and the Bradshaw Trail.
La Quinta Hotel, 1930 by Burton Frasher. Courtesy of Pomona Library.
The matriarch of La Quinta was a 1,400 acre development of the La Quinta Hotel in 1926-27, built by native San Franciscan Walter H. Morgan with famed architect Gordon B. Kaufmann. In the late twentieth century La Quinta went from an agarian community of homesteads and ranches to a destination of prestige and luxury.
Morgan enticed celebrities with the secret sauce they coveted most, privacy from the grind of Hollywood under two hours drive from Los Angeles movie studios to meet the dreaded “two hour rule” in their contracts to report for action once summoned by the suits.
The resort featured 20 guest casitas, an opulent open-air glassed dining room and three courtyards. The La Quinta Hotel, which later became the La Quinta Resort & Club, was a popular hideaway for Hollywood stars and business tycoons.
Notable individuals who frequented the hotel included Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Katherine Hepburn, Shirley Temple, Joan Crawford and other big screen luminaries.
Greta Garbo was married on the grounds, as was Ginger Rogers and others. The resort also hosted other prominent figures, including Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and and Jimmy Carter.
Some visitors brought their work with them to the La Quinta Resort & Club, like director Frank Capra, who wrote many of his movies like It’s a Wonderful Life at the resort during the 1930s. It was designed by by a Los Angeles architect named Archibald Quincy Jones known for his modernist influence. The casita where Frank and Lucille Capra often stayed and a ballroom are named in their honor, a two-minute walk from Garbo’s cottage.
The La Quinta resort opened the first golf course in the valley with a greens fee of one dollar a day at their $50,000 nine-hole course designed by Norman MacBeth.
Nowadays, La Quinta Resort & Club encompasses nearly 800 charming guest casitas and villas, 41 pools, a luxury spa, five restaurants and much more.
Although La Quinta Inn & Suites hotel chain owned by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts uses a similar name, there is no direct connection between the city, La Quinta Resort, and the hotel chain.
La Quinta Hotel, La Quinta California, 1940. Courtesy of Pomona Library.
Walter Morgan named La Quinta for the Spanish word for a country estate, or a mansion surrounded by bungalows.
Some have purported the Spanish word for “the fifth” served as the fifth stop on the nearby Bradshaw Trail which ran through La Quinta until 1877. La Quinta was never the fifth stop.
Over half the route ran through Coachella Valley.
William Bradshaw, an experienced guide, soldier and miner, chose to blaze the new trail he claimed would save 200 miles and 10 days of travel.
The gold rush to the Colorado River of 1862 provided the Bradshaw Trail its impetus, which has survived to the present time, now being represented by Interstate 10 in southern California.
A Cahuilla Chief from the Toro Village, southeast of La Quinta, showed Bradshaw an Indian Trail that meandered to San Bernardino. The terminus of the Bradshaw Trail was in the gold fields of La Paz, Arizona (now Ehrenberg). This would be later be known as the Bradshaw Trail, also called the Gold Trail.
On the first day the stageline was robbed in Banning Pass. There were no survivors. Not an auspicious start, but things got better.
A portion of the Bradshaw Trail near Indio, c. 1910. Photo courtesy of Palm Springs Historical Society.
La Quinta’s first post office opened in 1930. Because it initially lacked a permanent postage meter, a loaner was substituted. The earliest mail from La Quinta was stamped as originating from the border city of Calexico, the headquarters of California Development Company, a water corporation organized for the purpose of bringing water from the Colorado River to the valley.
Austrian born real estate developer Harry Kiener acquired several thousands of acres around the La Quinta Hotel between 1933 and 1937, which became The Cove, La Quinta’s first residential development.
[Note: Some sources have referenced “E.S.” in front of Harry Keiner’s name. We conclude it may have been applied as an abbreviation for the honorary European title of “Esquire.”]
Riverside Daily Press, August 30, 1933.
Small houses were built which emulated the Spanish Colonial Revival style of the La Quinta Hotel and its casitas. Santa Carmelita de Vale (Saint Carmelita of the Valley) was The Cove development’s original name.
Materials to build the new subdivision were locally sourced and handmade. The Joe Valenzuela Roof Company manufactured the red roof tiles from the local clay for both the La Quinta Hotel and The Cove casitas. The tiles received their unique shape from being rounded over the knees of workers.
The Cove is located in Range 6, Township 6, Sections 01, 12 and 13. Range numbers are east and all Township numbers are south in La Quinta.
A township is a square area, approximately 6 miles on each side, containing 36 sections. Ranges are vertical strips of land, also approximately 6 miles wide. They are numbered east or west of a principal meridian. Each township is further divided into 36 sections, each approximately 1 square mile (640 acres).
The Desert Sun, January 12, 1940.
The Boo Hoff Trail, formerly known as the Old Guadalupe Trail until 1979, began as the remnant of an ancient Cahuilla trail that was expanded and maintained by an equestrian group called Desert Riders, formed in 1930 and is still going strong.
The trailhead is located in The Cove, along with Bear Creek Trail and Cove Oasis Trail. Other trails, like Quarry Overlook Trail and Cove to Lake Trail, intersect with these trails.
Boo Hoff and his wife, Jane Lykken Hoff, were avid horsemen and group ride organizers. Riders came from all over the county to be led by Boo Hoff over challenging desert trails. Jane’s folks were early Palm Springs pioneers.
Her Dad was the first postmaster. Their store, Lykken’s Department and Hardware Store had the first telephone in Palm Springs. Lykken Memorial Trail, named in his honor in 1972, is located in Palm Springs. The Boo Hoff Trail in La Quinta is to the left of the Bear Creek Trail.
La Quinta, looking south, 1956. Courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library.
Harry Kiener, of the Big Bear Land and Water Company and Palm Springs Land and Irrigation Company, also built the Peter Pan Woodland Club near the present-day Big Bear Airport. The Big Bear Land and Water Company had offices in downtown Los Angeles at 8th and Spring Street.
Kiener decided to make a sister club to the Peter Pan Woodland Club and chose The Desert Club in La Quinta, east of Palm Springs. It was designed and constructed in 1930 by Guy Maltby, owner of the Bear Valley Milling and Lumber Company.
The Peter Pan Woodland Club and the Desert Club offered reciprocal privileges year round. The proverbial best of both worlds.
Frasher Fotos Postcard, courtesy of Big Bear Historical Society.
The Desert Club was a magnet for celebrities seeking a more casual vibe than the La Quinta Hotel. The Desert Club built 63 casitas from 1935 to 1941. Kiener intended to let or sell them as weekend getaways. They were all L-shaped on 50 by 100 foot lots.
Although The Cove construction boom ceased during WW II due to scarcity of materials, it renewed with vigor after the war. Between 1935-1950, approximately 94 homes were constructed in The Cove.
In the end, the Peter Pan Woodland Club and Desert Club would sadly suffer similar fates. The Peter Pan Woodland Club experienced a devastating fire in 1948, completely destroying the clubhouse. It never re-opened.
The Desert Club, circa 1938. Courtesy of La Quinta Historical Society.
The original but smaller clubhouse built in 1927 south of Big Bear Boulevard was razed and hauled by trucks down the hill to the golf course northwest of the Greenway and Country Club intersections and placed next to the resort’s swimming pool.
It re-opened as Peter Pan Rancho but never recaptured the glory of the Woodland Club.
According to the case of PALM SPRINGS LA QUINTA DEVELOPMENT CO v. KIEBERK CORPORATION ET AL (1941), a lawsuit for the recoupment of $7,000 for attorneys fees after Kiener’s illness, “From 1925 to January, 1936, Harry Kiener was engaged in promoting the subdivision and sale of several tracts of real property in southern California…” Spoiler alert. They won.
“The first corporation was called the Kieberk Corporation, of which [Kiener] was president, manager and sole owner. Subsequently he organized the Kiener Corporation, which became the successor of the Kieberk Corporation, and the owner of all its property and assets.
He also organized certain auxiliary corporations which were conducted as recreational clubs to which large numbers of individuals were induced to join with fishing, hunting, swimming and golfing privileges. One of these subdivisions was called the La Quinta Tract near Palm Springs in Riverside county…”
The Desert Club succumbed to a fire in the 1965 and was completely rebuilt as a family resort for more than $300,000 dollars.
Palm Desert Post, Mar 16, 1972.
Harry Kiener was the father-in-law to American novelist Louis L’Amour, best known for his fictional books about the Old West. Louis and his wife, Kathy, had a 60 plus acre date and citrus ranch behind the La Quinta Hotel until it was sold in the late 1960s. It was called Rancho La Quinta, which has no relation to the newer Rancho La Quinta subdivison on Washington Street.
In 1972, Fritz Burns, a long time associate of industrial magnate Henry J. Kaiser and owner of The Erawan Garden Hotel in Indian Wells, purchased The Desert Club with its 22 charming guest rooms and 25 acres. Burns also acquired the building and grounds of Hacienda del Gato just south and east of The Desert Club.
In March 1972, Fritz Burns, under the auspices of the La Quinta Construction Company, began building six new home models for the 2,000 residential lots and nearly 2,000 acres of other lands he quietly purchased in the prior six years.
House of O’Brien’s Gift and Date Shop La Quinta, California, 1947. Frasher Fotos Postcard courtesy of Pomona Public Library.
The shop’s building was formerly located at 78039 Calle Estado in La Quinta.
The Desert Sun, Mar 26, 1948.
Tom and Uta Thornburgh became new owners of The Desert Club in 1978. They lost control of the club but regained it through a court order in 1982. By the mid-1980s, The Desert Club shuttered its doors forever.
In 1989, the city of La Quinta, believing that it would never have the resources to restore the site it had been donated, allowed the California Department of Forestry and local volunteers to burn the structure for firefighting practice.
The city later created a community park on the site named after the former owner of the Desert Club, Fritz Burns.
La Quinta from the north, looking southwest, 1956. Courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library.
Today the city has a keen eye on history and preservation. The city council recently voted unanimously in favor for preserving its historic La Quinta Milling and Lumber Company near the museum as part of a larger plan for a Cultural Campus.
It was the construction office for some of the area’s early developments in the 1930s. The lumberyard was in the rear. The second floor served as an apartment. This plan involves the La Quinta Museum, Casita, and the Lumberyard Building.
The Desert Sun, October 1, 1936.
According to an article published in the Palm Desert Post on January 15, 1998, the city utilized state grant funds to hire a consultant to conduct a Historic Resources Survey in 1996, which was completed in the autumn of 1997 of residences 45 years or older.
La Quinta’s website said a second survey was conducted in 2006. The inventory database was expanded to include 183 sites with 109 of the new sites eligible for listing. In 2012, the City, with support from a grant from the California Office of Historic Preservation through its Certified Local Government program, consolidated the two surveys and created a digitized interactive database.
In 2022-2023, an exciting update to the City’s Historic Resources Survey in greater detail was completed by Urbana Preservation and Planning. To be considered historic, a property generally needs to be at least 50 years old (though there are exceptions) and meet specific criteria related to historical events, significant figures, architectural merit, or cultural significance, says the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
La Quinta Hotel, 1930. Frasher Fotos, courtesy of Pomona Public Library.
As featured in The Gem, La Quinta’s free monthly magazine, the La Quinta City Council designated a historic casita built in 1934 with a “L” shaped floorplan as a landmark in December 2024. It is one of four casitas built by Kiener in 1934. In April 2025, a second historic casita also received unanimous votes by the city council for designation as a landmark.
The La Quinta Cove historical district’s casitas are a significant part of the city’s history and are considered architectural landmarks due to their unique style and historical significance. The historic casitas provide a glimpse into the area’s past and evolution of its architecture.
La Quinta’s crown jewel within walking distance from the lower part of The Cove is a charming restaurant and shopping district called Old Town, formerly The Village commerical district, on top of a dry lake known as Marshall’s Lake. Kiener graded the lakebed and added drainage culverts for flood prevention to meet county specifications.
Truth be told, Old Town isn’t really that old, since it was built in 2002. However, it does a splendid job of recreating an old world ambience with its lovely traditional Spanish Colonial Revival style design, evocative of the La Quinta Hotel.
The first buiding built was a general store at 78039 Calle Estado, where the El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant is presently located. House of O’Brien’s Date and Gift Shop later set up business at the same address.
78039 Calle Estado
The first La Quinta mayor in 1982 was Fred Wolff. They lived in The Cove. Their home substituted as a temporary city hall as they campaigned to incorporate the city with a ballot measure.
Harry S. Truman Elementary School, La Quinta’s first public school, opened in 1989, followed later by La Quinta High School in 1994.
La Quinta’s first official city hall was located at 78105 Calle Estado after its incorporation until 1993 when the new 30,000 square foot city hall located at 78495 Calle Tampico was finished. The original city hall was converted to a barber shop and bakery.
78105 Calle Estado
The original fire station built in 1952 for the La Quinta Volunteer Fire Department at 78136 Frances Hack Lane, a cul-de-sac near Fritz Burns Park, is currently eligible for historic registration, as are other structures in the area. The modern Riverside County Fire Station #32, located on Avenue 52, opened on November 22, 2010.
After her retirement from the entertainment industry, Frances Hack and her husband moved to La Quinta and became a successful realtor and community leader. Her office once occupied the historic casita near to the museum where the historical society is now based. Among other notable attributes, Frances Hack was the talent scout who discovered Shirley Temple.
78136 Frances Hack Lane
La Quinta continues to be a favorite port of call for celebrities visiting Coachella Valley, from musicians performing at the Coachella Festival and Stagecoach, to top tennis players competing at the American Express golf tournament to the BNP Paribas.
Kudos to La Quinta Mayor Linda Evans and City Council for all you do to keep La Quinta the Gem of the Desert.
We realize we’ve unpacked a lot here, but this brief sketch serves as just a small snippet into La Quinta’s historic tapestry. In fact, we plunged headfirst down a rabbit hole that has enthralled us to the point we could write a book. Hmmm.
In the meantime, Happy Birthday, La Quinta! We wish you many, many more.
Top Photo: Early La Quinta Resort postcard, courtesy La Quinta Museum. Enhanced by John Earl.
Bottom Photo: La Quinta Neighborhood Watch volunteers Sally and Jaylyn at the Civic Center Campus during La Quinta’s birthday celebration event on April 26, 2025. Photo by John Earl.
Recommended Resources
Bailey, Victoria; Biondi, Gayle, La Quinta, Legend in the Making, Desert Springs Publishing, La Quinta, CA, 2007.
Bailey, Victoria J.; Crandal, Kim K., Savor a Taste of the California Desert, Signature Restaurant Recipes, Desert Springs Publishing, 2008.
Chase, J. Smeaton, California Desert Trails, published by Houghton Mifflin, 1919.
Gordon, Maggie, Historical Casitas of La Quinta Cove, Spanish Colonial Revival 1935-1941, Infinity Publishing Co., West Conshocken, PA, 2007. Reprinted by La Quinta Historical Society, 2024.
Hubbard, Doni, Favorite Trails of Desert Riders, Shoreline Printing and Graphics, 1991.
La Quinta Historical Society, Images of America La Quinta, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, 2020.
Lech, Steve, Pioneers of Riverside County, The Spanish, Mexican and Early American Periods, The History Press, 2012.
Lech, Steve, Resorts of Riverside County, Postcard History Series, Arcadia Publishing, 2005.
Ross, Delmer G., Gold Road to La Paz, An Interpretive Guide to the Bradshaw Trail, Tales of the Mojave Road Publishing Co, Goffs, CA, 1992.
Soltys, Richard, Coachella Valley, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, published by Soltys Productions, 2003.
History of La Quinta https://www.laquintaca.gov/about-us/history-of-la-quinta
Historic Sites and Tour https://www.laquintaca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/47011/637940031342000000
Historic Resources https://www.laquintaca.gov/business/design-and-development/planning-division/historic-preservation
La Quinta Resort and Club History https://www.laquintaresort.com/discover/history/
Lake Cahuilla Veteran’s Regional Park *Please check current status for closures before you go.* https://rivcoparks.org/regional-parks-campgrounds/lake-cahuilla-veterans-regional-park
La Quinta, California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Quinta,_California (with 63 references; impressive!)
Point Happy Plaque Read the Plaque – Point Happy
Point Happy History https://laquintahistoricalsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/History-of-Point-Happy.pdf
The Cove Hiking Trails https://www.laquintaca.gov/visit/hiking-map
Thank you so very much for all the work you did putting this History of La Quinta
in words and pictures in such a readable, relatable and visual form. Your attention to detail is remarkable. I hope it will be published and and made available at the Library.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Judith! We love the Gem of the Desert.