Corn Springs is a palm oasis situated in the Chuckwalla Mountains of the

Colorado Desert The Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States, and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to ...

Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...

, United States, seventeen miles southeast of Desert Center. Native Americans relied on the springs, and they engraved many

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

on the rocks in the area. In the late 19th century, miners in the area also relied on the springs, and they established the Corn Springs Mining District in 1897.Gunther, Jane Davies (1984). ''Riverside County, California, Place Names; Their Origins and Their Stories''. Riverside, CA: Rubidoux Printing Company. pp. 132–134. LOC Catalog: 84-72920. The springs were added to the United States

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1998.

History

The springs were used for thousands of years by nomadic Native Americans. The

Chemehuevi The Chemehuevi ( ) are an indigenous people of the Great Basin. They are the southernmost branch of Southern Paiute. Today, Chemehuevi people are enrolled in the following federally recognized tribes: * Colorado River Indian Tribes * Cheme ...

, Desert Cahuilla and Yuma bands frequented the spring and carved elaborate

in the nearby rocks. Some of the oldest rock art is over 10,000 years old.Corn Springs Campground
, United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved 2010-06-13. At times, there was enough surface water for

gardening Gardening is the process of growing plants for their vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs, and appearances within a designated space. Gardens fulfill a wide assortment of purposes, notably the production of Aesthetics, aesthetically pleasing area ...

by the springs. The Indians also utilized the fruit of the palms. Early white visitors found feral

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

plants in the vicinity, giving the spring its present name. In the late 19th century, miners came to the area and used the water for processing their gold ore. The most notable resident of the spring was Gus Lederer, the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Corn Springs". Lederer lived at the spring until 1932, when he died from a

black widow spider ''Latrodectus'' is a broadly distributed genus of spiders with several species that are commonly known as the true widows. This group is composed of those often loosely called black widow spiders, brown widow spiders, and similar spiders. However ...

bite, and was subsequently buried at Aztec Wells". Following Lederer's death in 1932, the land passed into public domain and the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

(BLM) established a campground. A BLM-run campground, with a well for drawing water from the spring, was established nearby. One mile past the camp ground is a miner's cabin and the remains of one of the mills. Edward Wodetzki and family mined this area until the early 1980s. At the time they had numerous gold, silver, and iron ore claims. More mines and cabins are located further up the road.

Geography

The area is located on the USGS ''Corn Spring, California'', 7.5-minute quadrangle (1981) at latitude/longitude . Over 60 California Fan Palms surround the spring. Typically there is no surface flow, but the wash that drains the area is named the Corn Springs Wash., The spring is dynamic, and for unknown reasons the amount of water coming to the surface has fluctuated widely over the years. The source of the water is unknown – very little rain falls in the area, and the nearest body of water is the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

, over 40 miles to the east. The spring can be reached via Corn Springs Road from Chuckawalla Valley Road just off

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

, about halfway between

Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...

and Blythe.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places Oases of California Springs of Riverside County, California Colorado Desert Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Riverside County, California Mining in Riverside County, California