Editing Cathedral City, California (section)

==History==
===Early history: before 1860===
Cathedral City sits at the northwestern end of the Coachella Valley between the [[San Bernardino Mountains]] to the north, and the [[San Jacinto Mountains]] to the south, with the [[San Gorgonio Pass]] to the West. The earliest established inhabitants of this region were the [[Cahuilla|Cahuilla Indians]]. They arrived in the area around 3,000 BCE.<ref name=Cahuilla1>{{cite web |title=History and Culture: Cultural History |url=http://www.aguacaliente.org/content/History%20and%20Culture/ |publisher=Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians |access-date=December 17, 2019}}</ref>
The Cahuilla were organized into bands of about 600 to 800 people, and it was the [[Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians]] who inhabited the lands that included what would become Cathedral City.<ref name="Cahuilla2">{{cite web |last1=Feller |first1=Walter |title=Digital Desert: Mojave Desert: Cahuilla Indians |url=http://mojavedesert.net/cahuilla-indians/ |website=Digital Desert |publisher=Walter Feller |access-date=December 17, 2019}}</ref>

The land was claimed by [[Spain]] in 1768 when Spain established [[The Californias|Las Californias]], a province of the [[Viceroyalty]] of [[New Spain]], and then by [[Mexico]] in 1821 when Mexico and Spain signed the [[Treaty of Cordoba]]. At that time the province had already been renamed and expanded into the larger [[Alta California]] province. After the [[Mexican–American War]], and with the signing of the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] in 1848, possession of the land was formally transferred to the [[United States]], and it officially became part of the [[California|State of California]] when the state was formed in 1850.
 
In 1852 [[United States Army|US Army]] Colonel Henry Washington, a nephew of President [[George Washington]], was contracted by the government to survey Southern California.<ref name=Survey1>{{cite web |last1=Mojave |first1=Mojo on the |title=George Washington's Nephew in the Mojave Desert? |url=https://www.desertusa.com/dusablog/george-washingtons-nephew-mojave-desert.html |website=DesertUSA |publisher=Mojo on the Mojave |access-date=December 17, 2019}}</ref>
On November 7 of that year he established the [[San Bernardino meridian|initial point]], in the San Bernardino Mountains, from which all subsequent surveys in Southern California would be based.<ref name=Survey2>{{cite journal |last1=Duffy |first1=Michael A |title=Three Monuments, One Initial Point (The Story of The San Bernardino Initial Point Monument) |journal=California Surveyor |date=September 2002 |issue=#135 |url=http://www.mdshs.org/articles/duffy.html |access-date=December 17, 2019}}</ref>
In 1855 he was contracted to continue his work and survey the Coachella Valley. It was then that he found and named Cathedral Canyon for which Cathedral City would eventually be named.<ref name=Survey1/>

Besides Colonel Henry Washington, there were occasional explorers, colonizers and soldiers that made their way through the area during the Spanish, Mexican, and early American eras, but none established any permanent structures or residences. The Cahuilla remained the only people known to be living in the area.

===Stage and freight lines 1860 – early 20th century===
Prior to the 1860s the only regularly traveled routes through the Coachella Valley were trading paths used by the Cahuilla and other Native American tribes. One of these paths, on the southwestern side of the valley, followed the base of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains somewhere near the [[Whitewater River (California)|Whitewater River]], and would have passed through the area that would become Cathedral City. Early non-native explorers, surveyors, and military, such as Colonel Washington, made use of these routes, but regular transportation services were not established until 1862.
  
The [[Steamboats of the Colorado River#Colorado River Gold Rush|Colorado River Gold Rush]], which started in the spring of 1862, prompted [[William D. Bradshaw]], a frontiersman, to seek a quicker route from Los Angeles to the [[Colorado River]]. Later that year he hired a guide, and with the help of the Cahuilla and [[Maricopa people|Maricopa Indians]], mapped a route from [[San Bernardino, California]], through the San Gorgonio Pass and Coachella Valley, past the northern shore of the [[Salton Sink]], through the passes between the [[Chuckwalla Mountains|Chuckwalla]] and [[Chocolate Mountains]], and up to the Colorado River across from La Paz in the [[New Mexico Territory]], (now the state of [[Arizona]]). Much of the route is thought to have followed the original southwestern trading path used by the Cahuilla.

Shortly after Bradshaw defined the trail from San Bernardino to La Paz, various stagecoach and freight companies began using the route. The stage and freight lines brought miners, supplies, and mail between San Bernardino and La Paz, and the route became known as the [[Bradshaw Trail]] or "Gold Road". The Bradshaw trail, like the original Cahuillian trail, passed through the future Cathedral City, but the nearest scheduled stops were Agua Caliente (now Palms Springs), and Indian Wells (now Indio). The stage and freight lines were eventually supplanted by the railroads, but the trail would later become the basis for Palm Canyon Drive and [[California State Route 111|Highway 111]] that run through the city today.

===Depression era nightclubs===
In 1931, Al and Lou Wertheimer of the reputed Detroit "Purple Gang" opened the Dunes Club just outside Palm Springs' city limits. This was followed in 1939 by Earl T. Sausser's 139 Club and the Cove Club in 1941, built by Jake Katelman and Frank Portnoy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moruzzi|first=Peter|title=Palm Springs Holiday|year=2009|publisher=Gibbs Smith|location=Layton, UT|isbn=978-1-4236-0476-1|pages=39–42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdZPqOwMM2gC}}</ref><ref>Artist Carlo Wahlbeck, resident of Palm Springs, is the owner of 29 wood panels that used to hang in the now-demolished 139 Club. The panels were autographed and doodled on in the 1930s and early 1940s by the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Betty Grable, Jack Benny, Cole Porter, Fanny Brice, Gracie Allen, George Burns, Rosalind Russell and others.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}</ref>