Introduction to Cathedral City, California
Cathedral City is located in the heart of the Coachella Valley in eastern Riverside County, California. The city is bordered by Palm Springs to the west and Rancho Mirage to the east. Los Angeles and San Diego are each about 110 miles away.
The original inhabitants of the Coachella Valley were the Cahuilla Indians, who lived throughout the area for over 2,000 years. In 1876, descendants of the Cahuillas established a 52,000-acre reservation, which comprises 28 percent of the Cathedral City area.
In 1850, Colonel Henry Washington of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers named the region Cathedral Canyon after discovering that the area's canyons resembled the interior of a grand cathedral. In 1925, four developers established the area's first housing subdivision, aptly naming it Cathedral City.
The city was incorporated in 1981 and since that time has grown significantly in size.
Sports & Recreation
Cathedral City's climate - marked by clean air, scenic beauty, and up to 350 sunny days per year - lends itself to outdoor recreation enjoyed by people of all ages. The area boasts numerous public and private golf courses, as well as hiking in the nearby mountains. At Big League Sports Theme Park, residents can play baseball or softball in replicas of Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Tiger Stadium and Forbes and Wrigley Fields. There are also fields for soccer, rugby, volleyball, flag football, softball leagues and tournaments.
Arts & Entertainment
The Cathedral City Town Square hosts ongoing concerts and events. At the center of the Square is a unique, award-winning stone sculpture called the Fountain of Life - which busloads of tourists regularly stop to admire - as well as bronze statues of film star George Montgomery and Charles "Buddy" Rogers, an actor, jazz musician and long-time supporter of Cathedral City.
The area offers many wonderful restaurants, nightlife, dinner theatres and more. The 14-screen Mary Pickford Theatre, named in honor of the Academy Award-winning silent movie star, is one of the top theaters in Southern California and features memorabilia of the actress.
Two other popular tourist destinations in Cathedral City are Forest Lawn Cemetery and Desert Memorial Park, where numerous celebrities are buried, including Frank Sinatra, Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Sonny Bono, "Papa" John Phillips, Jane Wyman, Dinah Shore, George Montgomery, Cameron Mitchell, Harold Robbins, Busby Berkeley, William Powell, Betty Hutton, Guy Madison and Buddy Rogers.
