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Rancho Mirage Community Intro

Located in the geographic center of Palm Springs Valley, Rancho Mirage is a mere ten miles northwest from the city of Indio and ten miles southeast of the city of Palm Springs. Rancho Mirage appears to lie in a sheltered cove, spreading its green carpet across the desert floor from the Santa Rosa Mountains on the south toward the mighty snow-capped San Jacinto range on the west.

At a comfortable elevation of 246 feet, Rancho Mirage has dry, clear air and low humidity, offering casual living at its unhurried, uncrowded best. Rancho Mirage was once known as the “Playground of Presidents” because scores of corporate presidents and other chief executive officers—people who really know the meaning of daily pressure—would come from everywhere to seek relaxation in Rancho Mirage. Rancho Mirage is the oasis of gracious living in the Palm Springs Valley.

Rancho Mirage is a 21st Century city, but it holds a legacy of Native American and European cultures. The Palm Springs Valley was home to the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians for centuries before the Spanish developed land routes in the region to supply inland missions in the 1770s. Spanish Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and his party of 34 men crossed the desert in 1774 to open a route to coastal California. Their route was to the south of the Palm Springs Valley, as they skirted the Santa Rosas on the south side of the Borrego Valley. In 1848, California became a territory of the United States following the Mexican-American War. The following year brought the California Gold Rush of ‘49 and led to statehood in 1850. Colonel Henry Washington and his troops made the first U.S. Government survey of the Palm Springs Valley in 1855-56. There was not a lot of human activity in Rancho Mirage until the 1920s.

The promotion of Rancho Mirage as a destination desert community began as early as 1924 with the efforts of Bert Davie and E.E. McIntyre, who purchased hundreds of acres of land from the Southern Pacific Railroad. Bert Davie was an ardent promoter from Michigan. Davie established a ranch house at Clancy Lane and built a north-south thoroughfare to connect his new desert paradise to the Bradshaw Trail (present-day Highway 111). He named this road Rio del Sol (Way of the Sun), which later became Bob Hope Drive.

Les Clancy, the first to build a home in the development, arrived with his wife Helen and brother M.C. in 1932. The area was known to most as “Little Santa Monica,” named after the city they hailed from, near Los Angeles.

Two other real estate speculators, Louis Blankenhorn and Laurence Macomber, coined the name Rancho Mirage when they launched a promotion of land parcels along Highway 111 in 1934 in the area between Bob Hope Drive and Indian Trail. While this subdivision was quite successful, the center of the community continued to be Davie’s Rio del Sol Estates through World War II.

After the Second World War, Rancho Mirage saw a new era of development that would create the predominant image as a world-class resort and residential community, characterized by high-quality planned residential golf course developments.

The “Country Club Era” (1951-1973), as it is being called by local historians, was the real Golden Age of Rancho Mirage. This star-powered period of development set the tone for the future of the city for all time. It began when the Thunderbird Dude Ranch became Thunderbird Country Club, the first 18-hole golf course in the Palm Springs Valley. It introduced homes right on the golf course, which in 1951 was a new and fresh idea. Residents could walk out their back doors and be right on the fairway. At the time, most country clubs were like private parks for adults with a golf course, tennis courts, a swimming pool and a clubhouse. People didn’t live at country clubs.

Around the same time, a group of members from Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles were making plans to develop an “unrestricted” country club in the desert. The group included Hollywood’s most elite executives and actors. Their venture, Tamarisk Country Club, opened in 1952.

The creative talent of members of the two clubs could never be matched in the world today. Imagine within a one mile radius the talents of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball, Hoagy Carmichael, the Marx Brothers, Alice Faye, Phil Harris, Jack Benny, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis among others.

The star power of the two clubs brought some influential architects to Rancho Mirage. Some of the best preserved mid-century modern architecture can be found in and around the two clubs.

The Rancho Mirage Chamber of Commerce was born out of the building boom created by the country clubs and the nation’s booming post-war economy. Businesses set up shop to serve the burgeoning community and residential neighborhoods sprouted in the Magnesia Falls Cove. The Chamber of Commerce was an important cog in the wheel of the community along with the Rancho Mirage Community Association.

The Chamber promoted Rancho Mirage as a great place to live with wide-open spaces, spectacular views and golf—all situated in the heart of the Palm Springs Valley.

Neighborhood groups worked hard for many years to get the city incorporated. The Rancho Mirage Community Association finally worked out a deal with the country club homeowners: they would support the incorporation of Rancho Mirage and agree to be part of the city only if the articles of incorporation would prohibit the city from collecting property tax. The City of Rancho Mirage incorporated in August 1973 and took on the task of promoting high-quality economic growth while maintaining the quality of life that initially attracted residents to the area. Its views of surrounding mountains, attractively landscaped streets and golf course communities make it a truly special place. Rancho Mirage has a reputation as a low-density, high-quality resort town. The city enhances this image by designing and maintaining visually distinct entry monuments, public signs and architectural elements. To keep Rancho Mirage’s sense of place as a unique, unparalleled haven in the desert, the city maintains many of the major streets and thoroughfares with lush, drought-tolerant median landscaping and street designs. Rancho Mirage residents have unobstructed views as the city spared no expense to put all utility wires underground.

With a permanent population of 17,416, Rancho Mirage expects the population to peak at 25,900 by the year 2020. Assessed valuation increased by $400 million in 2004 to over $5.606 billion.

Rancho Mirage hosts over a million visitors a year, and is the winter home for an additional 11,300 people. Tourism is Rancho Mirage’s leading industry, and maintaining a relaxed, high-quality resort lifestyle is tantamount to its success. With forward thinking backed by a history of success, Rancho Mirage will continue to reign as the Oasis of Gracious Living in the Palm Springs Valley.