Palm Springs Introduction Walking Tour (Self Guided), Palm Springs

The Cahuilla people have lived in the Coachella Valley for over 2,000 years, long before the first European settlers showed up in the early 1800s. The area was popular because there was an abundance of water and shade here, rare commodities in the Sonoran Desert. Much of the land in and around Palm Springs is on the Agua Caliente Reservation; you can learn more about the Cahuilla at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum.

During the 1800s, several settlers and pioneers settled in the area. Railroads passed nearby, but none close enough to make anything of the town. San Francisco attorney John Guthrie McCallum bought some property in the area and attempted to set up an irrigation system, but a series of floods and droughts thwarted his plans. The community remained small until the early 1900s when health tourism made it fashionable to seek out "dry heat," of which Palm Springs has an abundance.

Several resorts and hotels opened, and a resort town was born. Several upscale department stores from LA opened Spanish Colonial-style resort stores, followed by Southern California's first self-contained shopping center called La Plaza in 1936. Though the anchor stores have changed many times, you can still stroll La Plaza and see the original Plaza Theater.

Beginning in the 1930s, movie stars, singers, authors, and politicians flocked to Palm Springs. The town became known as the "Sandbox" for the rich and famous, a resort play-town in the desert. Several neighborhoods in town are chockablock full of homes owned or previously owned by the Hollywood glitterati. Strolling the sidewalks of the neighborhood of Old Las Palmas, for example, will reward you with views of the former vacation homes of Liberace, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis, among many others.

Palm Springs is not the sleepy, out-of-the-way desert resort town it once was, but it's still a fantastic destination year-round. It's full of mid-century modernist architecture and wonderful historical gems for movie buffs (don't miss the Walk of Stars, Palm Springs' answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame). Take a self-guided walking tour of Palm Springs, because you never know who you'll run into.