For years, golf has been the one thing people could count on for keeping this centuries-old desert oasis green and growing.
Today, however, the Coachella Valley is taking a page from the Las Vegas phone book and adding casino gambling and fitness spas to its list of things to do . With newly expanded Joshua Tree National Park attracting serious outdoors enthusiasts to the area as well, the median age of the transient population probably has plummeted to something like 60.
Architecture-minded tourists and rehabbers are even starting to pay attention to all those kooky Modernist buildings–gas stations, diners, motels, even trailer parks–that have survived years of neglect and ridicule, and now are being praised for their streamlined elegance and bold profile.
OK, scoff, but Palm Springs and the neighboring environs haven’t been this full of life in decades. It’s almost as if the Rat Pack is back.
With its mild winters, spectacular scenery and healing waters, Palm Springs has provided a refuge for the nation’s richest and most photogenic citizens for nearly a century.
In the last 30 years, however, the growth spurt has occurred in the eastern precincts of the sprawling Coachella Valley, and “The Springs” has struggled to maintain its elite image.
To that end, many local residents have begun to look to the near past for inspiration.
While no human hand could re-create the surprisingly fertile canyons and imposing peaks that form the valley’s southern boundary, preservationists are trying to restore the many Modernist gems that have been left to erode alongside local highways since the halcyon days of the ’50s and ’60s.
“One thing people should see here is the revival of ’50s Modern architecture, because it is directly related to the heyday of Palm Springs, and stars like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Desi and Lucy,” asserts journalist Alan Hess, a Southern California native now living in Michigan, who co-authored the book “Palm Springs Weekend: The Architecture and Design of a Midcentury Oasis,” which honors the legacy of such architects as Richard Neutra, John Lautner, R.M. Schindler, Albert Frey, William Cody and Lloyd Wright.
The city went through a long fallow period, he acknowledges, “when it basically was frozen in time, and a lot of that ’50s Modern architecture deteriorated and just looked pedestrian and mundane. I attribute that mostly to a lack of maintenance and bad additions.
“But, a lot of that is being brought back–houses, as well as inns and restaurants. They’re being restored to their original, highly stylized ’50s look.”
The Willows, a villa built in 1927 for financier Louis Untermeyr, has played host to such luminaries as Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Marion Davies and Albert Einstein. Located two blocks from the Spa resort, and right around the corner from the Palm Springs Desert Museum, the Mediterranean-style inn has benefited from an overall resuscitation of the downtown business district, which roughly paralleled the rise of Sonny Bono as a political power.
Hollywood’s early influence on the town also can be recalled in such hotels as Korakia Pensione, Ballantine’s and Ballantine’s Movie Colony. Contemporary stars often are spotted at the isolated and cozy 29 Palms Inn, less than an hour away, at the north gate of Joshua Tree National Park.
The Spa is situated on an 8-acre parcel of land that for the last 900 years, at least, has been a haven for native desert nomads. The still-percolating Agua Caliente (Hot Water) mineral springs were discovered by the Cahuilla Indians, and have been used for bathing and curative purposes for as long as the band’s historians can document.
The springs were opened to the public as a bathhouse facility in 1870, and, in 1901, provided a name for the new city. The Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians acquired the property in 1992 and added a makeshift casino to the remodeled hotel a few years later.
Now, some 6,700 acres of the 300-member tribe’s reservation lie within the Palm Springs city limits. The remaining sections fan out across the desert in a checkerboard pattern, south and east of the city, and extend into the sheer canyons of the San Jacinto Mountains.
This spa tradition is enjoying a renaissance, as well, throughout the 640-square-mile Coachella Valley. Just as in Las Vegas, a new breed of destination spas is attracting visitors who might not be thoroughly in love with gambling and golf.
“A lot has changed since I arrived here in 1983, when there were only four facilities where fitness instructors could find full-time employment,” said Marilu Rogers, general manager of the Palms at Palms Springs. “Today, there are more than 30 spas and health clubs. Almost every major hotel has made fitness programs available to its guests, or has a spa.
“Lately, the Spa hotel downtown has been driven by the casino, but people have been going there for years for the natural waters and the massage rooms. But, just this year, they began incorporating fitness programs, because people want more than just a postage-stamp-sized room with a stationery bike. They want water-exercise programs, yoga classes, tai-chi, cardio–and it’s happening throughout the whole Palm Springs area.”
As a destination spa, the Palms–like its coastal cousin, the Oaks at Ojai–offers short-term lodging for guests in a comfortable and unassuming setting. Health-conscious meals are served, as are fitness classes and other communal activities.
Across the valley, the same need to adjust to the times has been felt at the venerable La Quinta Resort & Club. Surrounded by several championship golf courses and rugged cliffs, the hacienda-style facility recently added a fitness spa and extensive exercise programs.
“La Quinta opened in 1926, with 16 rooms, and it’s just grown from there,” said Kenneth C. Kinsey, director of marketing for the historic La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA West, in mountain-hugging La Quinta. “We’ve maintained our Hollywood following from the beginning…Greta Garbo…Frank Capra wrote `Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ and `It’s a Wonderful Life’ while staying here. Britney Spears and Jason Timberlake were here during the Christmas holiday. Matthew McConaughey was here the month before, and Bill Murray had his 50th birthday party out here.”
The property covers 45 acres, so well-heeled guests “can be in their own private bungalow and in their own world.”
Kinsey estimates that 80 percent of La Quinta’s individual visitors are golfers drawn to the neighboring courses, five of which have hosted PGA tour events.
“We opened our spa two years ago, not because of any decline in our golf business, but because 30 to 40 percent of our golfers are bringing their spouses along for the first time,” he continues. “We have 25 tennis courts, retail outlets, restaurants….The demographic is redefining itself. We have several treatments that are male specific.
“For the guys who find the fragrances too `girly,’ we have a deep-tissue `golf massage’ that concentrates on the arm, shoulder and back muscles you use when you play golf. Our men’s facial uses different scents–not the flowery, perfume-y smells, but citrus and stronger.”
But the real excitement in town at the moment is coming from the construction boom that followed in the wake of the overwhelming approval of two statewide referenda that gave Native Americans the right to build casinos on tribal lands, and fill them with slot machines.
“There’s always been gambling–going back to the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s–but it’s always been undercover–available, but not in your face,” observes Hess. “It’s a big question mark for all of California, as to what the effects of Las Vegas-style gambling will be. But, I think there will always be other things to do in Palm Springs that will maintain the town’s integrity and traditional appeal…golf, shopping, natural scenery…at least as long as the casinos remain on the fringe.”
Despite the tens of millions of dollars of Nevada money that were poured into two well-oiled campaigns to severely limit Indian gaming, Californians voted overwhelmingly to pass both Propositions 5 and 1A (Prop. 5 was struck down on a technicality, and Prop. 1A quickly was introduced). Now, some of the same interests that had fought the propositions are joining hands with tribal leaders to construct flashy new casinos.
Next month, a year after the passage of Prop. 1A, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians will open a spacious new resort in Rancho Mirage. Unlike the tribe’s cramped and smoky Spa hotel, the Agua Caliente Casino wouldn’t look out of place anywhere in Las Vegas or Reno.
Instead of the often bizarre mix of poker-inspired table games and lottery-based slots that were played in California’s Indian casinos up until last spring, gamblers now can partake in true blackjack, several traditional varieties of poker, bingo, mini-baccarat and all manner of branded slot machines. At the newly expanded Fantasy Springs Casino–operated by the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, just off Interstate Highway 10, in nearby Indio–migrating snowbirds and visiting Angelenos can watch and wager on horse races from back home, as well, via satellite.
Before joining forces with the victorious tribes, Nevada gaming interests feared that tourists, conventioneers and locals might sate their passion for gambling in California, rather than make the longer haul to Las Vegas or Reno. It now seems unlikely that the half-dozen Palm Springs casinos will divert many travelers from Las Vegas, which offers far more diversions to visitors, than golf and gambling, but a Sacramento facility could severely curtail traffic to under-appreciated Reno and Lake Tahoe.
“Infrastructure-wise, this kind of growth is good for the community, but I think the casino clientele will be different than our resort clientele,” argues Kinsey. “The casinos are changing, and we’re starting to look at them as an added amenity for our guests, just as the national park adds value. Las Vegas is a very hot market to compete against, in terms of attracting convention business.”
Outdoors enthusiasts, of course, will find plenty to do in the Coachella Valley and beyond, in magnificent Joshua Tree National Park. The huge desert park lies at the meeting point of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, and provides a variety of recreation options for climbers, bikers and campers.
The extreme temperatures of summer likely will prove too great a test for weekend hikers and explorers. During the rest of the year, however, weather borders on perfect, and the diverse and pristine terrain will surprise anyone whose concept of desert scenery is limited to the litter-strewn wastelands on either side of the highways leading to and from Las Vegas or L.A.
And, when you get there, don’t be surprised if you encounter waterfalls, palm-lined springs and such native wildlife as bighorn sheep, rattlesnakes and mountain lions. Golfers should keep an eye out for a Tiger named Woods, as well.
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
Palm Springs has its own airport, which serves the Coachella Valley, but it also is a 75-minute drive from the larger Ontario International Airport and a two-hour drive from downtown Los Angeles, along Interstate Highway 10. Other forms of transportation include Amtrak rail and Greyhound bus services.
ADVENTURE
Daily explorations of the desert around Palm Springs are available from Desert Adventures of Cathedral City, Calif. The company operates a fleet of 17 seven-passenger Jeeps and says its driver-guides are trained in desert botany, zoology, geology, agriculture, mining and Cahuilla Indian life. One outing is to a palm oasis and replica of an old Cahuilla village. Another is to a re-created 1870s mining camp right on the San Andreas Fault. Both cost $59 per person for a two-hour ride, $89 for three hours and $109 for four hours. A third run is through irrigated agricultural areas to the Painted Hills, where you can hike, also check out the fault and be treated to fresh-picked dates. The tariff is $109. Call 888-440-5337; www.red-jeep.com/.
INFORMATION
For information about area activities: Palm Springs Desert Resorts hotline, 760-770-1992; www.desert-resorts.com. Toll-free lodging advice and hotel reservations can be made through 800-417-3529. Contact Palm Springs Tourism at 333 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 114, Palm Springs, CA 92264; phone 760-778-8415; www.palm-springs.org/default.htm.
