Cabot’s Pueblo Museum: Exploring the Home of one of California Desert Pioneer

After a night of glamping on a date farm in Desert Hot Springs (with two mineral pools just to myself!), I had planned to hike at the Whitewater Preserve before heading home. Alas, high winds gave me pause and then a quick check on the Internet showed that they had actually closed the preserve due to high winds. Time for plan B.

When googling around things to do in Desert Hot Springs, I had found Cabot’s Pueblo Museum and reviews were mixed: interesting, fun if you have time, not much to see here. But, hiking was out due to winds and having spent the evening soaking in a tub, I was not in the mood for a day spa (or shimmying back into my still wet bathing suit), so off to Cabot’s I went — having no idea what to expect.

What I found was eclectic, interesting, and inspiring. Cabot’s spirit of building with what he had, conserving his resources, and respecting the land and the people who came before him really resonated with me.

Desert Hot Springs: The Town

Desert Hot Springs is a resort town about 2 hours east of Los Angeles, a bit north of Palm Springs and a bit west of Joshua Tree National Park. The small town is known for its mineral hot springs and the is dotted with resorts and day spas where tourists can experience the healing and relaxing waters. Since the discovery of the springs, Desert Hot Springs has revolved around them, including sporting a famous center where polio survivors used the springs as part of their rehabilitation.

Cabot Yerxa

Although the Cahuilla people, who are native to the deserts and mountains of Southern California, have long known about, used, and revered the warm mineral waters, the waters’ rediscovery by American settlers is credited to Cabot Yerxa.

Cabot was an adventurer who claimed a homestead in present day Desert Hot Springs. He loved the desert, but needed water, both to survive and to legally claim the homestead. Possibly tipped off by a local Cahuilla, when he dug a well, he found a natural hot spring. Nearby he also found a cold water source. He named his homestead Miracle Hill.

Cabot’s Pueblo

Although Cabot first started homesteading in Desert Hot Springs when he was 30 (finding the spring in 1913), he did not begin to build the home that is currently the museum until he was 58.

*The kitchen, with “eaves” over the counter to prevent dust from landing on food when people walked upstairs.*

The best way to tour the house is to use the self-guided audio tour. You can listen through your phone (and headphones/ear buds, if you like) and listen as you wander. It’s interesting to learn the history of the house but, even better, fun to listen to the narrator tell you where to peek (behind the door to see Cabot’s personal bathroom) or up in the stone wall to see his “man cave” or on the kitchen shelves to see the “medicine” which includes a number of known poisonous substances.

His tiny bathroom (tucked behind a door), his “man cave,” poisonous patent medicine in the kitchen.

The narrator is good at pointing out that Cabot used whatever materials he had at hand to build. He reused timber from his first home. He used telephone poles as rafters. He used tin cans to fill knots in the timber. You also get to see the hand tools that Cabot used to build the house (and marvel that such a structure could have been built with hand tools!)

*Telephone pole rafters and tin can knot stoppers.*

To create hiding places for valuables, Cabot built mason jars into the wall. He could tuck in some cash, cap the jars, and just move furniture in front to hide the cache. (What’s interesting is that the house was unoccupied for long stretches of time, after Cabot passed away, and seemed not to suffer: the structure and artifacts remained.)

*Note the shelves built into the walls, and the mason jar “safe.*”

He also built a home that consciously thought about how to cool a home in the brutal desert. Windows and little openings create ideal air flow (guiding the warm air up and out). Thick rock walls shelter parts of the house during the hottest parts of the day. The whole house comes off as smart, resourceful, and sustainable.

Cabot’s Passions

Cabot was passionate about native people (when he lived in Alaska, he learned and wrote a book about the native language, which was acquired by the Smithsonian; he collected Pueblo artifacts; he built his desert home in the style of Hopi structures, learning from their heat protection methods).

Today, we would also call Cabot a conservationist. I’m not sure if he would call himself that, or just practical. But he lived a spirit of sustainability that showed throughout the house. A quote on the wall stood out: “It was common practice to bathe the face in a teacup of water, then add soap to wash hands; after this the water was thrown on the kitchen floor, picked up with a mop, and the water squeezed out on a small tree or tomato vine. That was the best that could be done; the water had been used 3 times.”

*Cabot’s quote about everyday water conservations struck me as profound.*

Cabot also loved to build. He wanted to make the house even bigger, but he eventually ran out of time and energy. Seeing the gorgeous quarters he built upstairs for his second wife (the feel like they could be in a city apartment) you can feel how creative he was, working entirely with hand-tools, to build rooms both elegant and comfortable.

*The little kitchenette in Portia’s quarters upstairs.*

Overall: Is Cabot’s Pueblo Museum worth a visit

I spent a lovely hour and a half in the museum. I left feeling like I had stepped back in history (and I just love going through a building that is largely unchanged in over a century). The day I visited was cool, so the fans actually made it a little cold, but I suspect it would get quite warm in the summer, so go early. I left feeling a kinship with Cabot and I’m glad I visited.

*From the back of the house. You can see why Cabot loved this place.*

If you find yourself with an hour or so to spare in Desert Hot Springs, stop by Cabot’s Museum. It’s beautiful, very well-maintained, and quite peaceful.