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PALM SPRINGS |
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Sitting in lush farming land, replete with manicured golf courses,
condominiums and millionaires, PALM SPRINGS does not conform to any
typical image of the desert, embodying a strange mix of Spanish Colonial
and mid-century modern styling. The massive bulk of Mount San Jacinto
looms over its low-slung buildings, casting a welcome shadow over the
town in the late afternoon. Ever since Hollywood stars first came here
in the 1930s, laying claim to ranch-style estates and holing up in elite
hotels, the clean dry air and sunshine, just 120 miles east of LA, have
made Palm Springs irresistible. For years, high-school kids arrived in
their thousands for Spring Break, until civic zeal ran them out of town,
while others come specifically to sober up: the Betty Ford Center in
nearby Rancho Mirage draws a star-studded patient list to its booze- and
drug-free environment, attempting to undo a lifetime's worth of
behavioral disorders in an $11,000 28-day stay.
Palm Springs wasn't always like this. Once it was the domain of the
Cahuillan Indians ; they were allocated this land in the 1890s, but
exact zoning wasn't settled until the 1940s, by which time the
development of hotels and leisure complexes was well under way. Under an
odd checkerboard system, every other square mile of Palm Springs forms
part of the Agua Caliente (Spanish for "hot water") Indian Reservation ,
and high rents have made this the second richest tribe in America, worth
more than $2 billion wealth that's been increasing with the new Casino
Morongo, right in the heart of town.
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Vacation Rentals in Palm Springs |
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from $44.00
USD