Our History

The legacy began just after the turn of the 20th century, when adventurer Cabot Yerxa hand-dug two wells with a pick and shovel on his 160-acre homestead. One produced crisp cold water; the other, hot mineral water. Not surprisingly, the site was christened Miracle Hill.

Modern-day visitors to Desert Hot Springs are still enjoying the benefits of Cabot Yerxa’s dual discovery. Parched adventurers can refresh with a glass of crisp municipal tap water from a supply that’s consistently rated among the purest on the planet — with multiple international medals to prove it! It’s no accident that The Ranch Estate sits atop a hot medicinal aquifer. The valley is situated at the boundary of two active continental plates; the southern side of the valley is on the Pacific plate while the northern side (where The Ranch Estate and Desert Hot springs is located) sits on the North American plate.

The San Andreas Fault runs northwest through the valley and creates underground barriers to ground water forcing it to rise to the surface producing a Palm Oasis in various spots. The Thousand Palm Oasis within the Coachella Valley Preserve is one of the largest in the world and located just down the road from The Ranch Estate.

Cabot Yerxa's four-story, 5,000-square-foot Hopi-inspired structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Cabot began construction in 1941 and worked on the homestead until his death in 1965. The pueblo is hand-built from reclaimed and found materials, much of which came from abandoned cabins that housed men who built the California aqueduct in the 1930s. It includes 35 rooms, 150 windows and 65 doors. Cabot fashioned and sun-dried all of the adobe-style bricks himself.