Established 1945 Visitors 10,000+ per year Phone +1 760-329-7610 | Type Historic house museum Website www.cabotsmuseum.org Public transit access SunLine Transit Agency | |
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Location 67-616 East Desert View Ave.
Desert Hot Springs, California Curator Cabot's Museum Foundation Address 67616 Desert View Ave, Desert Hot Springs, CA 92240, USA Hours Closing soon · 9AM–4PMSunday9AM–4PMMondayClosedTuesday9AM–4PMWednesday9AM–4PMThursday9AM–4PMFriday9AM–4PMSaturday9AM–4PM Similar Living Desert Zoo and Gard, Palm Springs Air Museum, Agua Caliente Cultural, Coachella Valley History M, Moorten Botanical Garden a Profiles | ||
Cabot s pueblo museum wander list
Cabot's Pueblo Museum (also known as Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum Cabot's Trading Post and Yerxa's Discovery) is a 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 American Indian and Alaska Native cultures, and memorabilia of early desert homesteader life.
Contents
Cabot s pueblo museum desert hot springs ca jan 2016
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 Valley. It is named as "Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo Museum" in its application for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The California State Parks 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 aquifers 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.
Yerxa's friend Cole Eyraud protected the settlement after his death and after it had been abandoned and vandalized. 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, Hopi-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 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:
Waokiye
A later addition to the site is that of the Waokiye, or "traditional helper" in the Lakota 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 Waokiye's 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 Alliance of Museums.
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, California, a spa resort town north of Palm Springs, California. Line 14 of the SunLine Transit Agency serves Desert Hot Springs from Palm Springs.
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.
Preservation of artifacts
In 2009 numerous artifacts from the pueblo were removed to an undisclosed location. In 2010 the Balboa Art Conservation Center of San Diego, California, conducted a study of the museum and reported that improvements in air filtration, lighting, and landscape irrigation were needed. In 2010 the Balboa Art Conservation Center of San Diego, California, conducted a study of the museum and reported that improvements in air filtration, lighting, and landscape irrigation were needed.