Cabot Museum- November 29

While looking for the Desert Hot Spring's visitor center,we accidentally came upon this museum. Cabot Yerxa was important to Desert Hot Springs because he was the one who discovered the springs which has made the city famous. In 1913 he was homesteading 160 acres here and,at the direction of an Indian,began digging for water. His first well delivered hot water and 600 yards away his second well delivered cold water. Cabot Yerxa,born in 1883,grew up among the Sioux Indians. At the age of 19 years he lived among the Inuits in Alaska. He became both a writer and an artist. He always worked tirelessly on behalf of Indian rights. He and his wife Portia valued community and compassion above all else. We toured his home,which he designed and built according to the Hopi pueblo. He scrounged everywhere for the windows,doors,beams,and nails. Many times he took those materials from deserted homesteader's cabins. Consequently his doors and windows come in all shapes and sizes. What an interesting,quirky house! Building his home was an on-going process for 23 years,until Cabot died in 1965. It ended up having a total of 5,000 square feet and 35 rooms. He adorned his home with Katchina's which he painted himself-one can be seen in the picture posted here of his home. After touring this museum John and I went on to Big Morongo Canyon. Because of a cold front coming through it was rainy and overcast. This cold front brought snow to the higher elevations,which you may notice in the picture here. In the foreground are wind towers-it may help to enlarge that picture to see all the details. We enjoyed our hike in the canyon,where we were able to enjoy both marshy and desert areas. In the wet areas were cottonwood and willow trees-the cottonwood trees are quite noticeable in the picture here with their bright yellow leaves.