Mecca

History

For many eras, the Desert Cahuilla's native home was the Coachella Valley. The Cahuillas would travel from their village in Martinez to Dos Palmas Spring via an ancient Native American trail known as the Cocomaricopa/Halchidoma Trail. This trail traversed just south of the town of Mecca. Spanish Explorer Melchior Diaz is the first non-indigenous person to set foot and explore inland California in December 1540 near the Yuma Crossing and Imperial Valley (95 miles southeast from Mecca). Legend of Juan de Iturbe's Lost Pearl Ship in the Desert is a local legend that after the 1862 Great flood locals reported seeing an ancient Spanish galleon that had beached during a voyage at New Spain's northernmost frontier of water the ancient Lake Cahuilla in 1615. In reported cases, the ship was allegedly seen near Salt Creek (South of Mecca). Juan Bautista de Anza led a colonizing expedition in 1774, from Mission San Xavier del Bac (Tucson) to San Gabriel Mission (Los Angeles). Anza traveled through the Imperial Valley just south of Mecca and encountered the native Cahuillas becoming the first Spanish to make contact with the Cahuillas. Spanish missionaries from the San Gabriel Mission in Los Angeles would make the long journey to collect salt from brine pools near the northern Salton sink (South of Mecca) known as the evaporating ancient Lake Cahuilla in 1810. In 1823 under orders from the Mexican Emperor Agustín de Iturbide to reopen a land route (closed by an Indian Revolt In 1871) from Alta California to Sonora, Captain José Romero and José María Estudillo documented the first recorded expedition into the Coachella Valley. They traversed the Halchidoma Trail and were escorted by the Cahuilla to Dos Palmas Spring (Near Mecca), reaching it on December 31, 1823. They camped…

Geography

Situated in the Colorado Desert, Mecca has a hot arid climate (Köppen: BWh), experiencing an annual average maximum temperature of . Low temperatures can reach below . The community sits under below sea level on the edge of the Salton Sea. Land developers intending to irrigate the desert with water from the Colorado River did not foresee excess snow melt, and for two years from 1905 to 1906 accidentally re-routed the entirety of the river to the Salton Sink, flooding the salt mines that had been a source of salt for perhaps centuries and giving rise to the Salton Sea. Groundwater and water transported via the Coachella Canal have transformed the desert environment into large swaths of agricultural land. The highest temperature recorded in Mecca was on September 2, 1950 and June 26, 1990, holding the record for the highest temperature recorded on Earth in September until it reached in Death Valley in 2022. Annual rainfall averages , with the wettest "rain year" being from July 1991 to June 1992 when fell, and the driest from July 1995 to June 1996 with only . The wettest month has been September 1976 with , and the wettest day September 11, 1976 with – one-third more than the average annual rainfall.

Race & ethnicity