Editing Cathedral City, California (section)

===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.