Dos Palmas Spring is an artesian spring in Riverside County, California where it lies at the foot of the Orocopia Mountains. It is only one of several such springs in the area that create an oasis in the Colorado Desert there.[1]
History
editDos 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.
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
Dos Palmas Preserve
editThe 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