Cathedral City

History

Cathedral City sits at the northwestern end of the Coachella Valley between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north, and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south, with the San Gorgonio Pass to the West. The earliest established inhabitants of this region were the Cahuilla Indians. They arrived in the area around 3,000 BCE. The Cahuilla were organized into bands of about 600 to 800 people, and it was the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians who inhabited the lands that included what would become Cathedral City. The land was claimed by Spain in 1768 when Spain established Las Californias, a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and then by Mexico in 1821 when Mexico and Spain signed the Treaty of Cordoba. At that time the province had already been renamed and expanded into the larger Alta California province. After the Mexican–American War, and with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, possession of the land was formally transferred to the United States, and it officially became part of the State of California when the state was formed in 1850. In 1852 US Army Colonel Henry Washington, a nephew of President George Washington, was contracted by the government to survey Southern California. On November 7 of that year he established the initial point, in the San Bernardino Mountains, from which all subsequent surveys in Southern California would be based. In 1855 he was contracted to continue his work and survey the Coachella Valley. It was then that he found and named Cathedral Canyon for which Cathedral City would eventually be named.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, Cathedral City has a total area of , of which of it is land and of it (1.13%) is water. | date = April 2021 | source 2 = }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  12,432
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  11,937
• Costa's Hummingbird

  Calypte costae (Bourcier, 1839) · Aves
  11,679
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,843
• Verdin

  Auriparus flaviceps (Sundevall, 1850) · Aves
  10,549
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,304
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

  Setophaga coronata (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  9,515
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  8,053

Largest nearby schools

• Palm Desert High
  High · Palm Desert · 2,050 students · 24.4:1 ratio
• Desert Hot Springs High
  High · Desert Hot Springs · 1,742 students · 19.4:1 ratio
• Palm Springs High
  High · Palm Springs · 1,584 students · 23:1 ratio
• Rancho Mirage High
  High · Rancho Mirage · 1,491 students · 21.9:1 ratio
• Cathedral City High
  High · Cathedral City · 1,395 students · 20.2:1 ratio
• Palm Desert Charter Middle
  Middle · Palm Desert · 1,347 students · 27.5:1 ratio
• James Workman Middle
  Middle · Cathedral City · 1,028 students · 22.8:1 ratio
• Nellie N. Coffman Middle
  Middle · Cathedral City · 953 students · 21.7:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.67 — 2026-09-08
  39 km NE of Big Bear City, CA
• M 2.91 — 2026-08-31
  22 km SSW of La Quinta, CA
• M 3.06 — 2026-08-25
  12 km WSW of Salton City, CA
• M 3.64 — 2026-08-19
  14 km N of Warner Springs, CA
• M 3.22 — 2026-08-01
  17 km E of Desert Hot Springs, CA
• M 2.98 — 2026-07-31
  9 km W of Palomar Observatory, CA