Cabot's Pueblo Museum

{{Infobox museum

|name = Cabot's Pueblo Museum

|image = Cabots-Pueblo-Museum.jpg

|image_upright =

|caption = Pueblo Museum – Main Building

|alt =

|map_type =

|map_caption =

|map_alt =

|latitude =

|longitude =

|established = 1945

|dissolved =

|location = 67-616 East Desert View Ave.
Desert Hot Springs, California

{{coord|33|57|29|N|116|28|56|W|display=inline,title|region:US-CA_type:landmark_scale:150000_source:is|name=Cabots Old Indian Pueblo and Museum}}{{GNIS|1848880|Cabots Old Indian Pueblo and Museum}}

|type = Historic house museum

|visitors = 10,000+ per year (2009){{cite web

| last = O’Keefe

| first = Michael

| title = President's Corner: Where We've Been...Where We're Going

| work = What's Up on Miracle Hill: News of Cabot's Pueblo Museum, Vol. II, No. 2

| publisher = Cabot's Pueblo Museum

| date = October 2009

| url = http://www.pojawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Cabots-newsletter-Vol-2-No-2.pdf

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425152019/http://www.pojawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Cabots-newsletter-Vol-2-No-2.pdf

| archive-date=April 25, 2012

| access-date = November 8, 2011}}

|director =

|curator = Cabot's Museum Foundation

|publictransit = SunLine Transit Agency
Line 14

|website = {{URL|http://www.cabotsmuseum.org/}}

}}

Cabot's Pueblo Museum is an American historic house museum located in Desert Hot Springs, California, and built by Cabot Yerxa, an early pioneer of the Colorado Desert. A large, Hopi-style pueblo, built in the Pueblo Revival Style, it contains artworks, artifacts of American Indian and Alaska Native cultures, and memorabilia of early desert homesteader life. The museum may also be referred to as Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum, Cabot's Trading Post or Yerxa's Discovery.

Origins of the name

The house and surrounding structures were self-built by Cabot Abram Yerxa (1883–1965),[http://www.pscemetery.com/pdfs/interments.pdf Palm Springs Cemetery District, "Interments of Interest"] an early 20th-century homesteader in the Coachella Valley.Yerxa was born on a Lakota Sioux reservation in the Dakota Territory. Before starting the Pueblo, he traveled to Alaska to sell cigars during the Nome Gold Rush, Cuba to develop real estate, and Mexico. His family owned an orange grove in Riverside, California, but lost the crop to freezing in 1913. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army. Later he worked as the postmaster of Sierra Madre, California. His parents were long established in New England and New Brunswick. (Brown 2011, pp. 11–12.)
Yerxa also subdivided property to create the town of Desert Hot Springs. ({{Cite book

| last = Niemann

| first = Greg

| title = Palm Springs Legends: creation of a desert oasis

| publisher = Sunbelt Publications

| year = 2006

| location = San Diego, CA

| page = 189

| isbn = 978-0932653741

|oclc=61211290}} ([http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0516/2005021837.html here for Table of Contents]))
The Palm Springs Unified School District [https://www.psusd.us/cyes Cabot Yerxa Elementary School] in Desert Hot Springs is named in his honor. It is named as "Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo Museum" in its application for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.[http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/1067/files/cabots%20indian%20pueblo%20museum%20draft%20nr.pdf California Department of Parks and Recreation "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form" (Draft)] The California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation lists it as "Yerxa's Discovery".[http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail.aspx?num=P560 California Office of Historic Preservation, "Yerxa's Discovery"]{{cite book|title=Guide to the Historical Landmarks of Riverside County, California|year=1993|publisher=Riverside County Historical Commission Press|location=Riverside, CA|pages=129}}

History

Yerxa was an adventurer who first settled on {{convert|160|acre|}} in Southern California's Coachella Valley in 1913.{{cite web|last=Japenga|first=Ann|title=Love Letters (and numbers)|url=http://www.annjapenga.com/Images/articles/wLove%20Letters.pdf|work=Desert Magazine|publisher=Palm Springs Desert Museum|access-date=November 28, 2011|date=March 2007}} He established his home, The Eagle's Nest, on a hill he would later name Miracle Hill. Using a pick and shovel to dig wells, Yerxa discovered two aquifers on opposite sides of the hill, which happened to be separated by the Mission Creek Fault, a branch of the San Andreas Fault.{{Cite web |url=https://www.mswd.org/documents/HotWaterMaps.pdf |title=Mission Springs Water District: hot water maps |access-date=2011-11-14 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304082328/https://www.mswd.org/documents/HotWaterMaps.pdf |url-status=dead }} The first aquifer was a natural hot spring with a temperature of 110 °F (43 °C) in the Desert Hot Springs Sub-Basin{{Citation

| last = June

| first = Susan

| publisher = Emporia State University, Department of Earth Sciences

| title = The Coachella Valley Basin

| date = May 5, 2008

| url = http://academic.emporia.edu/schulmem/hydro/TERM%20PROJECTS/2008/June/sj571.html

| access-date = November 14, 2011}} – describes the geologic sub-basins and which would later help give rise to the area's spas and resorts. The second, on the opposite side of the fault, was a cold aquifer of the Mission Springs Sub-Basin.[https://www.mswd.org/documents/SubBasins.pdf Mission Springs Water District: sub-basins map] This same aquifer provides fresh water to the city of Desert Hot Springs and has received awards for exceptional taste.{{Cite web |url=http://www.berkeleysprings.com/water/awards2.htm |title=Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Awards |access-date=2011-11-10 |archive-date=2011-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028201110/http://www.berkeleysprings.com/water/awards2.htm |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.cityofdhs.org/Award-Winning_Water |title=City of Desert Hot Springs – Water |access-date=2011-11-08 |archive-date=2017-07-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708225817/http://www.cityofdhs.org/Award-Winning_Water |url-status=dead }}

In May, 1917, Yerxa left the desert to join the Army during World War I. He returned to the desert in 1937, and in 1939 began building a museum to house his collection of Native American and other artifacts. He fashioned the building as a Hopi Indian pueblo in honor of the Indian people,{{cite book

| last1 = Bogert| first1 =Frank M.

| author-link =Frank M. Bogert

| title = Palm Springs: First Hundred Years (Revised, with epilogue)

| location = Palm Springs, CA

| publisher = Palm Springs Library

| year= 2003

| pages =161

| isbn = 096187242X

| oclc =17171891

}} and he opened Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo in 1950. He operated it with his wife, Portia, until his death in 1965. Upon his death Portia returned to her native Texas and the structure was abandoned.

Yerxa's friend Cole Eyraud protected the settlement after his death and after it had been abandoned and vandalized.Cole Eyraud was a Burbank businessman who knew Yerxa in the past. Upon discovering the abandoned Pueblo, he purchased the complex and established Landmark Conservators to preserve the landmark. (Landmark Conservators, [http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/cbs.aspx California Secretary of State Entity Number: C0561941, Filed: 01/29/1969] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100402014221/http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/cbs.aspx |date=2010-04-02 }}) (Minckler 1986, p. 23.) Eyraud and his family purchased the complex, restoring it and later donating it to the City of Desert Hot Springs.[https://www.cabotsmuseum.org/ Cabot's Pueblo Museum official website]

Architecture

The centerpiece of the complex is a large, Hopi-style pueblo, in the Pueblo Revival Style of architecture. The main building is a four-story, 5000 square foot (465 sq.m) structure with 35 rooms, 150 windows, 65 doors and 30 different roof levels.{{Citation

| last = Murray

| first = Tom

| title = Cabot Yerxa's Castle

| newspaper = Desert Magazine

| pages = 29

| date = March 1964

| url = http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/196403-DesertMagazine-1964-March.pdf

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20111202091014/http://www.mydesertmagazine.com/files/196403-DesertMagazine-1964-March.pdf

| archive-date =2011-12-02

| url-status = dead

| access-date = November 11, 2011}} The pueblo and all the outbuildings on the site were built primarily from scrap wood and sheet metal all scavenged from the surrounding desert by Yerxa. It has a system of vents and shafts built into the walls to keep it cool in the summer.{{Citation

| last = Kraus

| first = Joe

| title = Cabot Yerxa's Monument to the Hopi

| newspaper = Desert Magazine

| pages = 6–7

| date = March 1976

| url = http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/197603-DesertMagazine-1976-March.pdf

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20111202140035/http://www.mydesertmagazine.com/files/197603-DesertMagazine-1976-March.pdf

| archive-date =2011-12-02

| url-status = dead

| access-date = November 11, 2011}}

Exhibits

File:Waokiye.jpg

=Collections=

Among the collections of the museum are:

America Indian and Alaska Native artifacts,Honore, Marcel [http://www.dhschamber.org/treasure.html "Treasure trove of artifacts found in Desert Hot Springs museum"], Desert Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce including Native American potteryPojawa, Jane (July 30, 2010). [http://issuu.com/idigthis/docs/ceramics "Inventory of Cabot's Pueblo Museum Pottery"]
Artwork of Yerxa{{cite book

| last1 = Maron | first1 = Barbara C.

| title = Cabot Yerxa, a Life in Art

| location = Desert Hot Springs, CA

| publisher = Cabot's Museum Foundation

| year= 2008

}} While living in Sierra Madre, Yerxa studied with Anthony Anderson, art critic of The Los Angeles Times. In 1925 he studied at the Paris Académie Julian and the London Murches. Cowboy painter Burt Proctor and Roy Ropp, creator of the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters, were frequent guests of Yerxa.

"A self-described desert rat and trader, in 1925 he went to Paris to study art at Académies Julian and Colarossi." {{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Edan Milton|title=Artists in California 1786–1940|year=1989|publisher=Hughes Publishing Company|location=San Francisco|isbn=0961611219|edition=Second|author-link=Edan Milton Hughes|page=625|oclc=123205388|quote=¶ PF [Ferndinand Perret Files]; The Western Woman, vol. 14, no. 3;}}{{cite book

| last1 = Hughes | first1 =Edan Milton

| author-link = Edan Milton Hughes

| title = Artists in California, 1786–1940. v. 2: Cabot Abram Yerxa

| location = San Francisco

| publisher = Hughes Pub. Co.

| year= 1989

| pages = 637

| lccn = 89086054

| isbn = 0961611219

| oclc = 123205388

}} {{LCC|N6530.C2 H8 1989}}

Documents, including photographs and Yerxa related correspondence{{Cite book |last=Yerxa |first=Cabot |title=Cabot Abram Yerxa on the Desert Since 1913 |publisher=Cabot's Museum Foundation |year=2011 |isbn=9780615455709 |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Richard E.}}

=''Waokiye''=

A later addition to the site is that of the Waokiye, or "traditional helper" in the Lakota language. Waokiye is the twenty-seventh sculpture in a series of 74 giant Native American heads, collectively known as the Trail of the Whispering Giants, carved during a twenty-one-year period by artist Peter Wolf Toth. The 43-foot sculpture was carved with the use of power tools from a section of a 45-ton (46 metric ton) giant sequoia log.{{cite news

| title = Artist's statues honor Indians in all 50 states

| newspaper = Cape Coral Daily Breeze

|agency=AP

| location =Cape Coral, FL

| date = April 9, 2009

| url = http://www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com/page/content.detail/id/504893.html?nav=5036&showlayout=0

| access-date = November 8, 2011}} The 750-year-old tree, which originally stood in Sequoia National Park, had been felled by lightning in the mid-1950s. All but the feather in Waokiye's headband was carved from the log. The feather was carved from an incense cedar from the nearby mountain community of Idyllwild. The statue was unveiled on May 20, 1978; it was repaired and rededicated by Toth on February 21, 2009.{{cite news

| title = Waokiye Statue Re-dedicated at Cabot Museum Art Fest

| newspaper = Desert Local News

| location =Palm Springs, CA

| pages = 8–12

| publisher = Max Liebermann

| date = February 26, 2009

| url = http://www.vdocshop.com/doc/Desert-Local-News/Desert_Local_News_Feb_26_09_virtual_edition_optimized/2009022601/10.html#8

| access-date = November 8, 2011}} At present, it is the only one of the sculptures left in California.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090106030553/http://www.dcschumaker.com/statue_27.htm Listing of the museum's Waokiye sculpture at Dcschumaker.com]}}

Operations

=Owners=

The City of Desert Hot Springs owns the museum and it is operated by the Cabot's Museum Foundation, a non-profit corporation.[http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/cbs.aspx California Secretary of State] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100402014221/http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/cbs.aspx |date=2010-04-02 }} Entity search, Entity Number C2371784, filed 12/07/2001 Cabot's Museum Foundation is a member of the American Alliance of Museums.{{Cite web |url=http://iweb.aam-us.org/Membership/CompanyInformation.aspx?sqs=ECxAt9TSbbN53Q3n6CHr3zXSIPfs7DWjhmRiGAm6hYX1ZiEQ%2FbfE7fAkonZgy%2FkLQzKWvt%2FfhwhPyvd39pitlIea9NhHGehvEPkcLsBcwfJKYEOEhRXmlSXTulHvpYpYjbKuV5fTV0xKBO+eaV8aXXE%3D&addressnum= |title=AAM Membership Directory |access-date=2020-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425151849/http://iweb.aam-us.org/Membership/CompanyInformation.aspx?sqs=ECxAt9TSbbN53Q3n6CHr3zXSIPfs7DWjhmRiGAm6hYX1ZiEQ%2FbfE7fAkonZgy%2FkLQzKWvt%2FfhwhPyvd39pitlIea9NhHGehvEPkcLsBcwfJKYEOEhRXmlSXTulHvpYpYjbKuV5fTV0xKBO+eaV8aXXE%3D&addressnum= |archive-date=2012-04-25 |url-status=dead }}

=Cabot’s Trading Post & Gallery=

In 2008 the Museum Foundation opened "Cabot's Trading Post & Gallery" to feature artwork from local artists.{{cite web

| last = O’Keefe

| first = Michael

| title = President's Corner: Cabot Yerxa and the Renaissance of Desert Hot Springs

| work = What's Up on Miracle Hill: News of Cabot's Pueblo Museum, Vol. I, No. 2

| publisher = Cabot's Pueblo Museum

| date = March 2008

| url = http://www.pojawa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Cabots-Newsletter-Vol-1-No-2.pdf

| access-date = November 8, 2011}}

=Location=

The museum is located at 67-616 East Desert View Avenue, in Desert Hot Springs, California, a spa resort town north of Palm Springs, California. Line 14 of the SunLine Transit Agency serves Desert Hot Springs from Palm Springs.

=Solar panels=

A set of 24 solar panels on a nearby hillside provides electric power to the museum.{{Cite web |url=http://cabotsearthday.org/Documents/oldest-in-america.pdf |title=Maron, Barbara (2010) "The Oldest Green Museum in America", Cabot's Museum Foundation Board |access-date=2011-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705050723/http://cabotsearthday.org/Documents/oldest-in-america.pdf |archive-date=2010-07-05 |url-status=dead }}

=Future plans=

The museum is developing plans to expand visitor facilities including an amphitheater, hiking trails, and a cultural campus.{{Citation

| last1 = Bauer and Wiley, Architects

| last2 = Jones & Jones, Architects

| author2-link = Grant_Jones_(architect)#Jones_.26_Jones

| title = Cabot's Pueblo Museum: Site Master Plan: Executive Summary

| date = August 2010

| url = http://www.cityofdhs.org/getdoc.cfm?id=1016

| access-date = November 11, 2011}}

==Preservation of artifacts==

In 2009 numerous artifacts from the pueblo were removed to an undisclosed location.{{cite journal|last=Eaton|first=Michelle|title=Where Are Cabot's Treasures?|journal=Desert Star Weekly|date=November 10, 2011|url=http://desertstarweekly.com/2011/11/10/cabot-yerxa-treasures/|pages=3, 8|access-date=December 4, 2011|publisher=Praxis Communications, Inc.|location=Desert Hot Springs, CA|quote=Not long after DHS city manager Rick Daniels began his job he identified the most valuable possessions the city owned and hauled them off to an unknown location.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426021611/http://desertstarweekly.com/2011/11/10/cabot-yerxa-treasures/|archive-date=April 26, 2012|url-status=dead}} In 2010 the Balboa Art Conservation Center of San Diego, California, conducted a study of the museum and reported that improvements in air filtration, lighting, and landscape irrigation were needed.{{cite journal|last=Schwartz |first=Hans-Gustav |title=Preserving the Past – Or NOT? Report Recommended Cabot's Museum Action Plan |journal=Desert Star Weekly |date=November 30, 2011 |url=http://desertstarweekly.com/2011/11/30/preserving-the-past-or-not/ |pages=3, 6 |access-date=December 4, 2011 |publisher=Praxis Communications, Inc. |location=Desert Hot Springs, CA |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426025456/http://desertstarweekly.com/2011/11/30/preserving-the-past-or-not/ |archive-date=April 26, 2012 }}{{cite web

| last = Gray

| first = Dean

| title = Where Are Cabot's Treasures?

| publisher = Desert Vortex

| date = November 11, 2011

| url = http://desertvortex.com/2011/11/11/where-are-cabots-treasures/

| access-date = October 15, 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121018054001/http://desertvortex.com/2011/11/11/where-are-cabots-treasures/

| archive-date = October 18, 2012

| url-status = dead

}}{{cite web

| last = Gray

| first = Dean

| author2 = Hans Gustaf-Schwartz

| title = Preserving the Past – Or NOT? Report Recommended Cabot's Museum Action Plan

| publisher = Desert Vortex

| date = December 3, 2011

| url = http://desertvortex.com/2011/12/03/preserving-the-past-cabots-museu/

| access-date = October 15, 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121018054025/http://desertvortex.com/2011/12/03/preserving-the-past-cabots-museu/

| archive-date = October 18, 2012

| url-status = dead

}}

Notes

References

Bibliography

{{cite book

| last1 = Minckler | first1 = Karen

| first2 = Schroeder | last2 = Bethany

| first3 =Eyraud | last3 = Cole

| title = The Legend of Cabot Yerxa

| location = Desert Hot Springs, CA

| publisher = Cabot's Museum Foundation

| year= 1986

| oclc = 272397224}}

{{Citation

| last = Raef

| first = Laura

| title = White Man's Pueblo

| newspaper = Desert Magazine

| pages = 8–9, 37

| date = February 1970

| url = http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/197002-DesertMagazine-1970-February.pdf

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20111202105055/http://www.mydesertmagazine.com/files/197002-DesertMagazine-1970-February.pdf

| archive-date =2011-12-02

| url-status = dead

| access-date = November 11, 2011}}

Reprinted as {{Citation

| last = Raef

| first = Laura

| title = White Man's Pueblo

| newspaper = Desert Magazine

| pages = 18–19

| date = February 1984

| url = http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/198402-DesertMagazine-1984-February.pdf

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20111202022821/http://www.mydesertmagazine.com/files/198402-DesertMagazine-1984-February.pdf

| archive-date =2011-12-02

| url-status = dead

| access-date = November 11, 2011}}

{{Citation

| last = Roy

| first = George M.

| title = Cabot Yerxa's Crazy House

| newspaper = Desert Magazine

| volume = 15

| issue = 11

| pages = 9–11

|date=November 1952

| url = http://mydesertmagazine.com/files/195211-DesertMagazine-1952-November.pdf

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20111202125015/http://www.mydesertmagazine.com/files/195211-DesertMagazine-1952-November.pdf

| archive-date =2011-12-02

| url-status = dead

| access-date = November 11, 2011}}; Also available at: [https://www.scribd.com/doc/2403484/195211-Desert-Magazine-1952-November].

External links

[http://cabotsmuseum.org/ Cabot's Pueblo Museum website]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120426021617/http://www.bacc.org/about_history.htm Balboa Arts Conservation Center, about]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130830224622/http://dhshistoricalsociety.com/desert_hot_springs_history.htm DHS Historical Society, "The History of Desert Hot Springs"]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120415063538/http://www.calgold.com/palmsprings/Default.asp?Series=000&Show=484 Huell Howser Productions, Palm Springs Series, Show 17], Huell Howser's PBS California's Gold 2002 visit to Cabot's Adobe (available as a VHS videorecodging – {{OCLC|47724845}})
Also available at: {{cite web|last=Howser|first=Huell|title=Cabot's Adobe – Palm Springs Week (17)|url=http://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/2002/09/26/cabots-adobe-palm-springs-week-17/|work=California's Gold|publisher=Chapman University Huell Howser Archive|author-link=Huell Howser|date=September 26, 2002}}
[http://issuu.com/idigthis/docs/cabot_yerxa Pojawa, Jane (June 4, 2008), "Cabot Yerxa: True Confessions of a Research Addict"] retrieved November 8, 2011

Category:Museums in Riverside County, California

Category:Desert Hot Springs, California

Category:American West museums in California

Category:Historic house museums in California

Category:Houses in Riverside County, California

Category:Native American museums in California

Category:Outdoor sculptures in California

Category:Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in California

Category:Biographical museums in the United States

Category:Landmarks of Riverside County, California

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Riverside County, California

Category:History of Riverside County, California