SilverRock insert

A Place Discovered. again and Again.

close your eyes and

imagine an ancient lake covering nearly 2,000 square miles, and reaching a depth of 300 feet. Birds and indigenous animals pick abundant fish from the clear water.

This was Lake Cahuilla.

Today the ancient waters are no longer seen, but the evidence lingers on. Beach deposits, wave-cut cliffs, and sand bars abound.

The Coachella Valley itself gets its name from the shells that are still readily found today.

Perhaps the most impressive mark left by Lake Cahuilla can be found within SilverRock. On the mountains, where waves once pounded, travertine freshwater lime deposits show the line of the lake’s high-water mark. It’s a constant reminder of this site’s long relationship with the power of earth’ most precious element.

On the mountains, where waves once pounded, travertine freshwater lime deposits show the line of the lake’s high-water mark.

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even hundred years ago, when this entire site was covered by a massive prehistoric lake, local Indian tribes came to its shores to fish and catch mollusks. From here, the tribes could explore the entire mountain and desert area, yet return to the comfort of the lake after each adventure.

Then, in the 18th century, Juan Bautista de Anza chose this location as the “fifth place of rest”—“La Quinta”— on his trail from presentday Mexico to the coast of California. It was a welcome break from the weeks and weeks of brutal travel across forbidding wastelands—a place where his adventurous band of explorers could rejuvenate their minds, bodies and spirits in preparation for the rest of their journey.

BY THE 1930s, the Valley’s secret had traveled in the desert wind and reached Hollywood’s rising stars. Attracted by the climate, clean air, and peaceful life it offered, faces like Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Greta Garbo, Dinah Shore, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and Ginger Rogers were seen regularly here. It naturally followed that this place would be nicknamed the “playground of the stars.” And with those stars came another rising sensation. Golf.

The rest, as they say, is history.