Coachella is a term well-known to music-lovers.
The annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, which started in 1999, has become a top global music attraction—but what does the word Coachella mean, anyhow? Where did it come from?
The festival’s name comes from the Coachella Valley, which was named after the city of Coachella, one of the nine cities in the area between the Salton Sea to the southeast, and the San Gorgonio Pass about 45 miles northwest. The valley’s easternmost city of Coachella was established thanks to a railhead that became a major shipping point for much of the valley’s produce.
Some people speculate that the word is a mispronunciation of Cahuilla, the name of the local indigenous people who have occupied the area for more than 3,000 years. In the mid-1800s, 22 desert Cahuilla villages were recorded with a population estimated in the thousands. In 1856, United States Land Office surveyors indicated there was Cahuilla village in what is now the city of Coachella.
However, that’s not where the word originated. Instead, documents show that Coachella is a misspelling of the word conchilla, which is Spanish for “little shell.” Early Spanish settlers had found numerous fossilized shells in the region’s dry lakebed (well before a catastrophic flood created the Salton Sea in 1905).
The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876 is a significant milestone for what became the Coachella Valley, linking it to the expanding network of U.S. railways. A three-car side spur (a short track off the main line used for loading and repairs, among other things) was built a few miles south of Indio. That siding initially became known as Woodspur due to the abundance of mesquite and greasewood (creosote) in the area.
The Southern Pacific Railroad Co. and the estate of Alban N. Towne (a railroad vice president) decided to get this wood to market for woodstoves. They hired Jason L. Rector—who had arrived from Iowa and pitched his tent nearby—to harvest and load this wood onto boxcars. Rector’s wood terminal on the siding did a thriving business, and he began to buy real estate in the area.
He successfully dug a well on his desert tract four miles east of Indio, at what is now the intersection of Grapefruit Boulevard and Fifth Street in Coachella; the well descended 550 feet and took eight months to dig. It was completed in November 1900 and tapped into pure water. With imminent and abundant water, Rector quit his job and was encouraged by managers of the Southern Pacific Railway to settle the area.
While there were “traqueros” (track workers, mostly of Mexican descent) who had camped nearby, and there was a small town in Indio, Rector became the first permanent resident of Woodspur. With the railroad in place to efficiently get produce to market, Rector and others hoped settlers could be interested in the area’s vast agricultural possibilities. At a small gathering which included railroad people, Rector and A.G. Tingman (who owned a small store in Indio), as well as a few prospectors and homesteaders, they decided a name change from Woodspur was in order. Someone suggested naming the town “Rector,” but he declined the honor.
The printers apparently misread a couple of the letters (an “a” for an “n,” and an “e” for an “i”), and the prospectus read “Coachella” instead of ‘Conchilla.”
Tingman proposed the name Conchilla, that Spanish word for those little shells abundant throughout the area. They voted and agreed on the name. Anxious to announce the new town to potential settlers, they ordered a prospectus/map.
However, a mistake made by the printers on the prospectus gave birth to the unusual name of Coachella, according to the city of Coachella’s historical records. The printers apparently misread a couple of the letters (an “a” for an “n,” and an “e” for an “i”), and the prospectus read “Coachella” instead of ‘Conchilla.” Rather than delay their announcement, which had been already slated for January 1901, they decided to just accept the misspelled name and later voted to adopt the name Coachella.
Years later Rector, recalled, “I well remember how badly put out Mr. Tingman was when the maps arrived and it was found that the engineer’s longhand was so unreadable that the name had been interpreted ‘Coachella.’”
Rector built an adobe house and advertised land for interested settlers, charging them $10 per filing. He laid out a township on his land, even setting aside two blocks for a park. Settlers were indeed attracted to the new agricultural area, and the community began to grow.
In 1902, Rector organized the Coachella Valley Produce Association, which shipped the first car of fruit ever raised in the valley. A packing house was later built in the town, followed by an ice and pre-cooling plant. The railroad was a lifeline for the city, facilitating the export of fresh produce such as dates, citrus fruits and vegetables, which contributed greatly to the local economy.
The goods produced and shipped from Coachella attracted buyers from major U.S. cities, and they were advertised throughout the world. As the desert’s climate allowed crops to be grown year-round, the town’s development continued. Rector (1853-1919) made the original hand-drawn map of the valley and served as unofficial mayor of Coachella for years.
Coachella was incorporated as a 2.5-square-mile city on Dec. 13, 1946. The city has since expanded to 30 square miles. The Coachella City Hall was built in 1949 on half of that parkland that was set aside by Rector and officially donated in 1905. The City Hall originally also housed the courthouse, the police department, and the U.S. Post Office. The other half of the parkland became Veterans’ Memorial Park.
As Coachella grew, a multi-generational Mexican-American culture took root in the town, and the city is officially bilingual in English and Spanish. Recent U.S. Census data shows that 97 percent of residents are Hispanic or Latino.
While still an agricultural center, the city of Coachella has diversified its economy with the addition of various small businesses and two casinos. In January 1995, the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians opened what is now the Spotlight 29 Casino. It was expanded in April 2002 to a 130,000-square-foot, full-service casino with restaurants and entertainment. In July 2002, the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians opened the Augustine Casino on their small reservation in the south part of the city. It has become popular as a neighborhood casino. Today, Coachella has population of about 45,000.
To most people, the word “Coachella” doesn’t refer to a city or a valley. Instead, it refers to one of the world’s most iconic music festivals—and if that lousy printing error hadn’t happened, a quarter-million attendees might be enjoying Conchilla instead of Coachella every April.
Sources for this article include the Coachella City Clerk; History of Riverside County by Elmer Wallace Holmes and others (Historic Record Company, 1912); Coachella Valley’s Golden Years (Desert Printing Co., 1968); and the Bureau of Land Management’s California Land Patents Database.