Writing this from my comfortable chair inward my comfortable domicile that protects me from the vagaries of the conditions outside, it's difficult for me to fully sympathise what the intrepid folks that settled the American West really went through. Most only wanted a novel identify to alive too heighten a family, but a few went far beyond that. They built something extraordinary that would be long after they were gone.
This is just what an adventurer past times the advert of
Cabot Yerxa (1883-1965) did. He arrived inward the
Coachella Valley in 1913 at historic menses xxx years after having lived inward Alaska, Republic of Cuba too Europe (he fifty-fifty studied fine art inward Paris). He began to homestead 160 acres inward the middle of the desert due north of Palm Springs too before long discovered ii aquifers, ane a natural hot bound too the other a mutual frigidity aquifer that yet provides fresh H2O to the City of Desert Hot Springs. In 1941, at historic menses 57, he began construction of what would move known every bit Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum:
The Hopi-inspired construction is hand-made, created from reclaimed too industrial plant life materials Cabot was inspired every bit a immature man child when he get-go saw a replica of a Southwest Indian pueblo at the Chicago World’s Fair. Much of the cloth used to build the Pueblo was from abandoned cabins that had housed the men who built the California aqueduct inward the 1930’s. Cabot purchased these cabins too deconstructed them to build his Pueblo. The Pueblo is four-stories, 5,000 foursquare feet too includes 35 rooms, 150 windows too 65 doors. Much of the Pueblo is made from adobe-style too sun-dried brick Cabot made himself inward the courtyard. Cabot modified his formula too used a loving cup of cement rather than straw to brand his bricks (source: Cabot's Pueblo Museum spider web site).
Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum opened to the populace inward 1945. Cabot too his married adult woman Portia operated it every bit a tourist attraction until his decease inward 1965. Portia moved dorsum to her native Texas too the construction was abandoned. Several years later, a friend of Cabot's named Cole Eyraud purchased the complex too restored it. After Eyraud's death, the belongings went to the City of Desert Hot Springs, too today the Pueblo is managed past times the Cabot's Museum Foundation. According to
Visit Desert Hot Springs:
[The principal building] houses an amazing collection of Native American pottery, arrowheads, plow of the 20th century photographs (including a grouping shot featuring Cabot Yerxa too Teddy Roosevelt, a unopen friend of Cabot’s mother), master copy fossil oil paintings past times Yerxa, a sculpture past times Chief Semu of the Chumash tribe (a dearest friend of Cabot’s), furnishings (like Buffalo Bill Cody’s chair) too more. It besides houses his Alaskan collections – artifacts he gathered piece living amongst the Alaskan Inuits. Among his many achievements, he wrote the get-go Inuit–English dictionary, which is inward the Smithsonian Institution.
I visited Cabot's Desert Pueblo on my recent
whirlwind trip to Palm Springs. I intend I had a grin on the my confront the entire fourth dimension I was walking around the compound. This is the sort of identify that speaks to me amongst its quirkiness too eccentricity. I alone know a petty virtually Cabot Yerxa, generally from the first-class 30-minute documentary they play at the trading post/gallery (
click here to sentinel a 4-minute excerpt). It seems to me he was a guy who only
had to build this structure, much similar writers
have to write, painters
have to paint, too gardeners
have to garden. Fortunately, the desert provided him amongst a limitless canvas.
While non at focus at Cabot's Desert Museum, at that spot is a wealth of desert plants all over the compound, ranging from non-native Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' to native cactus too shrubs.
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| Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' |
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| Opuntia engelmannii var. linguiformis |
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| Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), beautiful fifty-fifty when bare |
Because of our to a greater extent than than generous wintertime rains, brittlebush (
Encelia farinosa) was going nuts. I had never seen brittle bush every bit large every bit this year, too blooming amongst every bit much abandon.
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| The shrub amongst cerise flowers is Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica) |
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| This Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' had reached shrub size |
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| Senita cactus (Pachycereus schottii) on either side of the bench |
As nosotros were leaving, I felt a pang of wistfulness. Is the fourth dimension actually gone when anybody could practise whatever their imagination dreamed up? I can't imagine today's regulations would permit a visionary similar Cabot Yerxa to build something every bit fantastical every bit his Pueblo--not without plans, permits too inspections.
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