A pictorial walk through history
Thousand Palms Oasis
Timeline of Thousand Palms Oasis |
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1000 BCE – present |
Successive Indian cultures live in the vicinity of the Thousand Palms Oasis:: Shoshone, Serrano, Early Cahuilla, Later Cahuilla |
| 1862 | The Bradshaw Stage Line runs regularly from the Colorado River gold fields to San Bernardino and Los Angeles |
| 1876 | The Southern Pacific Railroad is completed through the Coachella Valley, with a stop at Edom near present-day town of Thousand Palms |
| 1900 | Homesteading of desert land begins |
| 1902 | Albert Thornburg homesteads 80 acres of the Thousand Palms Oasis |
| 1905 | Louis Wilhelm trades two mules and a wagon for the 80 acres of Thousand Palms Oasis |
| 1913 | The Louis Wilhelm family, which includes twelve children, camps in the Oasis and continues to do so through the coming decades |
| 1921 | “The Sheik” with Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres is filmed in Oasis |
| 1927 | “King of Kings”, partially filmed in the Oasis, is produced by Cecil B DeMille |
| 1930s | Campers are using the area |
| Mid-1930s | Paul Wilhelm arrives to live in the Oasis through an arrangement where he rents the land from his father |
| 1942-1945 | Paul Wilhelm inherits the 80-acre Thousand Palms Oasis; Simone buys 640 acres, including the area of the present-day Simone Pond. |
| 1945 | Paul Wilhelm begins to offer cabins and tent sites for rent for overnight visitors, conducts walks and talks of the Oasis. |
| 1940s – 1980s | Paul builds a series of dams along the stream, creating reservoirs that were used for swimming, boating and fishing. |
| 1949 | Paul Wilhelm plants 15,000-palm nursery. No electricity or telephone has yet been brought to the vicinity. |
| 1950s | Crayfish are introduced to Simone pond by boy scouts. |
| 1951? | A 24-foot-wide gravel road is built from Hidden Springs to Dillon Highway (present-day Dillon Rd). |
| Paul lobbied to have the county route the road to the east of Squaw Hill, thereby diverting through traffic from the Oasis itself. | |
| 1957 | Electricity arrives at the Oasis; Paul Wilhelm acquires an electric stove and well pump, as well as a swamp cooler. |
| 1957 | Willis Palms Oasis burns in 50 mile-per-hour winds. |
| 1965 – 1966 | Hadley family camps in the Oasis. |
| 1958 | Paul Wilhelm deeds the land to Ed Lewis, a developer. Paul holds a deed of trust. |
| 1961 | Paul Wilhelm supplies water for trucks involved in paving Thousand Palms Canyon Rd from Dillon to Simone Pond. |
| 1968 | Fire starts in the palms between Thousand Palms Oasis and present-day McCallum Oasis by a worker burning dried reeds. One cabin burns. |
| 1968 | Many ponds now exist between Thousand Palms Oasis and Simone, named: El Dorado, Willow, Tamarisk, Simone, Spirit, Dune |
| 1969 | “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here”, starring Robert Redford and Katherine Ross, was filmed in part around the Oasis. |
| 1972 | Justin Dart buys land in Thousand Palms Canyon, Indio Hills and the dunes south of the Canyon, |
| including the Thousand Palms Oasis, altogether 19,000 acres. | |
| 1977 | Wilber Mayhew, a UC Riverside biology professor, forms the Coachella Valley Fringe-toed lizard Advisory Committee. |
| The committee is mostly state wildlife biologists and resource managers. | |
| The Committee wanted the FTL placed on state and federal endangered species lists. | |
| This year saw the first consideration of how new environmental regulations could affect use of the Thousand Palms Oasis, effectively limiting its use to open space. | |
| The Dart Corporation controls 23,000 acres. | |
| 1977 | A flash flood scours the area, damaging or destroying many buildings and washing out many mature palms. Dart builds levees and dams to mitigate future damage. |
| 1978 | US Fish and Wildlife (USFW) proposed “threatened” status for the FTL. Proposed a |
| 170 square mile preserve. | |
| 1980 | The California Department of Fish and Game declares the Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard Endangered. |
| The US Fish and Wildlife Service declares the Lizard Threatened, providing protection for its habitat. | |
| Thousand Palms Canyon is identified as sand source for the Coachella Valley Preserve System. | |
| 1981? | Paul Wilhelm is recovering from a sidewinder rattlesnake poisoning. Justin Dart sells 19,000 acres to Cathton Industries, controlled by Dr Charles Allard, for $13 million. Sale of an additional 4,000 acres (now USFWS Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge) is pending for agricultural uses. |
| 1981 | Paul Wilhelm and nephew Ric Wilhelm are let go from their positions as property caretakers for Dart Corporation. Paul contemplates selling his remaining ¼ acre, but continues to live in his cabin. |
| 1983 | Dr Charles Allard offers 19,000 acres for sale. The California Nature Conservancy buys only the Thousand Palms Oasis for $2 million lent by Mellon. |
| Al Muth (manager of UCR Deep Canyon Preserve) and Attorney Paul Selzer put together a group of stakeholders and started meeting, calling themselves The Lizard Club. | |
| 1985 | The McCallum Desert Foundation donates $300,000 to The Nature Conservancy for the Preserve. |
| 1985 | The Nature Conservancy begins management of the Thousand Palms Oasis and the greater Coachella Valley Preserve System |
| Mid-1980s | A wealthy Smoke Tree Ranch resident donates $50,000 anonymously to The Nature Conservancy for the Preserve. |
| 1987 | A refugium is established at Simone Pond for pupfish from Salt Creek in the present-day |
| Dos Palmas Preserve | |
| 1989 | A refugium is established also at the Thousand Palms Oasis visitor center pond for pupfish from Salt Creek |
| 1990 | A refugium is established at Dos Palmas via Simone pond. |
| 1997 | The Center for Natural Lands Management (CNLM) begins acquisition of interest in the Thousand Palms Oasis and McCallum Oasis. |
| 1994 | Paul Wilhelm passes. |
| 2013 | Center for Natural Lands Management completes acquisition of interest in the Thousand Palms Oasis and McCallum Oasis areas |
| 2015 | Thousand Palms Oasis and McCallum Oasis Preserves (880 acres) are managed by CNLM to conserve native species, their habitat and functioning ecosystems in perpetuity |