Cabot's Pueblo Museum
Encyclopedia
Cabot's Pueblo Museum is historic house museum located in Desert Hot Springs, California
, United States. A large, Hopi
-style pueblo
, built in the Pueblo Revival Style
, it contains artworks, artifacts
of Indian
and Eskimo
cultures, and memorabilia of early desert homesteader life.
.Yerxa was born on a Lakota Sioux reservation in the Dakota Territory
. Before starting the Pueblo, he traveled to Alaska to sell cigars during the Nome Gold Rush
, Cuba to develop real estate, and Mexico. His family owned an orange grove
in Riverside, California
, but lost the crop to freezing in 1913. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army. Later he worked as the postmaster
of Sierra Madre, California
. His parents were long established in New England
and New Brunswick
. (Brown 2011, p. 11-12.)
The Palm Springs Unified School District Cabot Yerxa Elementary School in Desert Hot Springs is named in his honor. It is named as "Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo Museum" in its' application for registration as a National Historic Place
. The California State Parks
Office of Historic Preservation lists it as "Yerxa's Discovery".
s separated by the Mission Creek Fault (a branch of the San Andreas Fault) atop what would later be called "Miracle Hill." The first aquifer was a natural hot spring
with a temperature of 110°F (43°C) in the Desert Hot Springs Sub-Basin and which would later help give rise to the area's spas and resorts. The second, on the opposite side of the fault, was a cold aquifer of the Mission Springs Sub-Basin
. This same aquifer provides fresh water to the city of Desert Hot Springs and has received awards for exceptional taste.
After 24 years of construction, and fashioning it as a Hopi Indian pueblo in honor of the Indian people, Yerxa opened "Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo" in 1945. He operated it with his wife, Portia, until his death in 1965. Upon his death Portia returned to her native Texas and the structure was abandoned.Portia Fearis (née Graham) Yerxa (1884 - 1969), a member of a wealthy Texas family, was an acclaimed concert musician (Roy November 1952, p. 9.) and lectured in metaphysics
in a school she established in Morongo Valley. They married in 1946. (Minickler 1986, p. 8.)
Yerxa's friend Cole Eyraud protected the settlement after his death and after it had been abandoned and vandalized.Cole Eyraud was a Burbank businessman who knew Yerxa in the past. Upon discovering the abandoned Pueblo, he purchased the complex and established Landmark Conservators to preserve the landmark. (Landmark Conservators, California Secretary of State Entity Number: C0561941, Filed: 01/29/1969) (Minckler 1986, p. 23.) Eyraud and his family purchased the complex, restoring it and later donating it to the City of Desert Hot Springs.
-style pueblo
, in the Pueblo Revival Style
of architecture. The main building is a four-story, 5000 square foot (465 sq.m) structure with 35 rooms, 150 windows, 65 doors and 30 different roof levels. The pueblo and all of the outbuildings on the site were built primarily from scrap wood and sheet metal all scavenged from the surrounding desert by Yerxa. It has a system of vents and shafts built into the walls to keep it cool in the summer.
language. Waokiye is the twenty-seventh sculpture in a series of 74 giant Native American
heads, collectively known as the Trail of the Whispering Giants
, carved during a twenty-one-year period by artist Peter Wolf Toth
. The 43-foot sculpture was carved with the use of power tools from a section of a 45-ton (46 metric ton) giant sequoia log. The 750-year-old tree, which originally stood in Sequoia National Park
, had been felled by lightning in the mid-1950s. All but the feather in Waokiyes headband was carved from the log. The feather was carved from an incense cedar from the nearby mountain community of Idyllwild. The statue was unveiled on May 20, 1978; it was repaired and rededicated by Toth on February 21, 2009. At present, it is the only one of the sculptures left in California.
.
, a spa resort town north of Palm Springs, California
. It is near Line 15 of the SunLine Transit Agency
.
Desert Hot Springs, California
Desert Hot Springs, also known as DHS, is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is located within the Coachella Valley geographic region, sometimes referred to as the Desert Empire. The population was 25,938 at the 2010 census, up from 16,582 at the 2000 United States...
, United States. A large, Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
-style pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
, built in the Pueblo Revival Style
Pueblo Revival Style architecture
The Pueblo Revival style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States which draws its inspiration from the Pueblos and the Spanish missions in New Mexico. The style developed at the turn of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it...
, it contains artworks, artifacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
of Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
and Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
cultures, and memorabilia of early desert homesteader life.
Origins of the name
The house and surrounding structures were self-built by Cabot Abram Yerxa (1883-1965), an early 20th century homesteader in the Coachella ValleyCoachella Valley
Coachella Valley is a large valley landform in Southern California. The valley extends for approximately 45 miles in Riverside County southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains to the saltwater Salton Sea, the largest lake in California...
.Yerxa was born on a Lakota Sioux reservation in the Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
. Before starting the Pueblo, he traveled to Alaska to sell cigars during the Nome Gold Rush
Nome Gold Rush
-Beach:Claim jumping was mostly a problem before the beach gold was found, since it could not be claimed and there was plenty of it. As a matter of fact, the beach gold seems to have been more important than the claimed gold in the creeks. The mining of Nome beach is a good example of gold rushes...
, Cuba to develop real estate, and Mexico. His family owned an orange grove
Orange Grove
-Music:* Orange Grove , a Dutch/Antillean reggae band-Australia:* Orange Grove, Western Australia* The Orange Grove affair, a political scandal-United States:...
in Riverside, California
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
, but lost the crop to freezing in 1913. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army. Later he worked as the postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
of Sierra Madre, California
Sierra Madre, California
The city of Sierra Madre is a municipality in Los Angeles County, California whose population was 10,917 at the 2010 census, up from 10,580 at the time of the 2000 census. The city is located in the Foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains below the southern edge of the Angeles National Forest. ...
. His parents were long established in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
. (Brown 2011, p. 11-12.)
The Palm Springs Unified School District Cabot Yerxa Elementary School in Desert Hot Springs is named in his honor. It is named as "Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo Museum" in its' application for registration as a National Historic Place
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. The California State Parks
California Department of Parks and Recreation
The California Department of Parks and Recreation, also known as California State Parks, manages the California state parks system. The system administers 278 parks and 1.4 million acres , with over of coastline; of lake and river frontage; nearly 15,000 campsites; and of hiking, biking, and...
Office of Historic Preservation lists it as "Yerxa's Discovery".
History
Yerxa was an adventurer who first settled on the 160-acre (65-hectare) plot in 1913. Using pick and shovel to dig wells, Yerxa discovered two separate aquiferAquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
s separated by the Mission Creek Fault (a branch of the San Andreas Fault) atop what would later be called "Miracle Hill." The first aquifer was a natural hot spring
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
with a temperature of 110°F (43°C) in the Desert Hot Springs Sub-Basin and which would later help give rise to the area's spas and resorts. The second, on the opposite side of the fault, was a cold aquifer of the Mission Springs Sub-Basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
. This same aquifer provides fresh water to the city of Desert Hot Springs and has received awards for exceptional taste.
After 24 years of construction, and fashioning it as a Hopi Indian pueblo in honor of the Indian people, Yerxa opened "Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo" in 1945. He operated it with his wife, Portia, until his death in 1965. Upon his death Portia returned to her native Texas and the structure was abandoned.Portia Fearis (née Graham) Yerxa (1884 - 1969), a member of a wealthy Texas family, was an acclaimed concert musician (Roy November 1952, p. 9.) and lectured in metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
in a school she established in Morongo Valley. They married in 1946. (Minickler 1986, p. 8.)
Yerxa's friend Cole Eyraud protected the settlement after his death and after it had been abandoned and vandalized.Cole Eyraud was a Burbank businessman who knew Yerxa in the past. Upon discovering the abandoned Pueblo, he purchased the complex and established Landmark Conservators to preserve the landmark. (Landmark Conservators, California Secretary of State Entity Number: C0561941, Filed: 01/29/1969) (Minckler 1986, p. 23.) Eyraud and his family purchased the complex, restoring it and later donating it to the City of Desert Hot Springs.
Architecture
The centerpiece of the complex is a large, HopiHopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
-style pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
, in the Pueblo Revival Style
Pueblo Revival Style architecture
The Pueblo Revival style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States which draws its inspiration from the Pueblos and the Spanish missions in New Mexico. The style developed at the turn of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it...
of architecture. The main building is a four-story, 5000 square foot (465 sq.m) structure with 35 rooms, 150 windows, 65 doors and 30 different roof levels. The pueblo and all of the outbuildings on the site were built primarily from scrap wood and sheet metal all scavenged from the surrounding desert by Yerxa. It has a system of vents and shafts built into the walls to keep it cool in the summer.
Collections
Among the collections of the museum are:- Indian and Eskimo artifacts, including Native American pottery
- Artwork of Yerxa
- Documents, including photographs and Yerxa related correspondence
Waokiye
A later addition to the site is that of the Waokiye, or "traditional helper" in the LakotaLakota language
Lakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages , and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux...
language. Waokiye is the twenty-seventh sculpture in a series of 74 giant Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
heads, collectively known as the Trail of the Whispering Giants
Trail of the Whispering Giants
The Trail of the Whispering Giants is a collection of sculptures by Hungarian-born artist Peter Wolf Toth. The sculptures range in height from , and are between in diameter. Currently there are 74 Whispering Giants, with at least one in each of the 50 U.S. states, as well as in Ontario and...
, carved during a twenty-one-year period by artist Peter Wolf Toth
Peter Wolf Toth
Peter Wolf Toth is a Hungarian-born sculptor, who immigrated to the United States and settled in Akron, Ohio. He later studied art at the University of Akron. He created a series of sculptures called Trail of the Whispering Giants to honor Native Americans...
. The 43-foot sculpture was carved with the use of power tools from a section of a 45-ton (46 metric ton) giant sequoia log. The 750-year-old tree, which originally stood in Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park
Sequoia National Park is a national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California, in the United States. It was established on September 25, 1890. The park spans . Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly , the park contains among its natural resources the highest point in the...
, had been felled by lightning in the mid-1950s. All but the feather in Waokiyes headband was carved from the log. The feather was carved from an incense cedar from the nearby mountain community of Idyllwild. The statue was unveiled on May 20, 1978; it was repaired and rededicated by Toth on February 21, 2009. At present, it is the only one of the sculptures left in California.
Owners
The City of Desert Hot Springs owns the museum and it is operated by the Cabot's Museum Foundation, a non-profit corporation. Cabot's Museum Foundation is a member of the American Association of MuseumsAmerican Association of Museums
The American Association of Museums is a non-profit association that has brought museums together since its founding in 1906, helping develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and advocating on issues of concern to the museum community...
.
Cabot’s Trading Post & Gallery
In 2008 the Museum Foundation opened "Cabot's Trading Post & Gallery" to feature artwork from local artists. Included at the Trading Post & Gallery is the Desert Hot Springs Visitor Hospitality Center.Location
The museum is located at 67-616 East Desert View Avenue, in Desert Hot Springs, CaliforniaDesert Hot Springs, California
Desert Hot Springs, also known as DHS, is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is located within the Coachella Valley geographic region, sometimes referred to as the Desert Empire. The population was 25,938 at the 2010 census, up from 16,582 at the 2000 United States...
, a spa resort town north of Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
. It is near Line 15 of the SunLine Transit Agency
SunLine Transit Agency
SunLine Transit Agency , a transit operator in Riverside County , is a transit agency providing bus service in the Coachella Valley area...
.
Solar panels
A set of 24 solar panels on a nearby hillside provides electric power to the museum.Future plans
The museum is developing plans to expand visitor facilities including an amphitheater, hiking trails, and a cultural campus.Further reading
- Pojawa, Jane, What's Up on Miracle Hill (index) retrieved November 8, 2011
External links
- Cabot's Pueblo Museum - official site
- DHS Historical Society, "The History of Desert Hot Springs"
- Huell Howser Productions, Palm Springs Series, Show 17, Huell HowserHuell HowserHuell Burnley Howser is an American television personality best known for California's Gold, his travel show for the Los Angeles based KCET.-Early career:...
's PBS California's GoldCalifornia's GoldCalifornia's Gold is a public television travel program that explores the numerous natural, cultural and historical wonders of the Golden State. The show, now in its 17th year, is produced and hosted by Huell Howser...
2002 visit to Cabot's Adobe - Pojawa, Jane (June 4, 2008), "Cabot Yerxa: True Confessions of a Research Addict" retrieved November 8, 2011