Thermal, California

Thermal is a small unincorporated community located approximately 25 miles southeast of Palm Springs and about 9.5 miles north of the Salton Sea. Although one can find sunny skies most days, residents occasionally endure strong winds and sizzling summer temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The community's elevation is about one hundred twenty feet below mean sea level. It is inside area code 760 and is in ZIP Code 92274. It lies along the Yuma Subdivision of the Union Pacific Railroad. Area crops include citrus orchards, winter vegetables and date palms.

History of the region

Thermal began as a railroad camp in 1910 for employees of the Union Pacific Railroad, followed by Mecca (originally called Walters) in 1915 and Arabia in between, each had about 1,000 residents. Then came the establishment of permanent dwellings on Avenue 56 (renamed Airport Boulevard), former U.S. Route 99 (State Route 86) and State Route 111 by the 1930s.

Agricultural development from canal irrigation made the area thrive in greenery by the 1950s, followed by the former Camp Young U.S. Naval Air station converted into Thermal Airport by 1965. In the early 1990s, a six-lane highway (the new State Route 86) was constructed as an earlier transportation route. There's a proposal for a major commercial aviation Airport known as the Jackie Cochran-Desert Cities Regional Airport in the same site.

Today

Once mainly rural, recent development and housing tracts from Indio and Coachella has spread out onto the open spaces of Thermal, Mecca and the highly affluent exurb of Vista Santa Rosa shares the same zip code with the mostly working-poor community, but hasn't affected real estate prices.

An estimated 5,000 residents live in the Thermal region, but it's said to double during the migrant labor harvest in May to July, and triples by "snowbirds" in the winter months from November to March. Nearby Mecca has over 10,000 residents, doubled in the last 5 years.

Thermal and Mecca are two towns with both seasonal and permanent residential growth. Almost all the population of the region are Latino, most of them are employed in agricultural and manual labor jobs. 4,000 people live in Duroville, a legally dubious trailer park on the Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation.

There are five Indian reservations: The Cabazon (Mission Indian), Cabazon Indian, Twentynine Palms, Torres-Martinez and Augustine bands of Mission Indians, with legal jurisdiction in portions of the region.

Thermal Airport is located about 1.6 miles southwest of the community. There is also a Thermal VORTAC which may be a co-located with the airport.

The region is served by a two-lane Expressway. State Route 86/111 is a modern transportation corridor that serves as a fruit shipping and international trucking route to connect with Interstate 10 in Indio.

Arabia, California once existed along the route of present-day SR111 between Avenue 60 and Avenue 61. The town had a post office in the early 1900s. The area may become an industrial center to replace the abandoned buildings.

College of the Desert, a community college based in Palm Desert is planning open a new satellite campus, the East Valley Educational Center, on the corner of 62nd Avenue and Buchanan Street.

chools

There are several schools in Coachella Valley Unified School District in and near the community. These include schools in Salton City, 20 miles south of Coachella, in Imperial County, California. In Thermal, they areWestside Elementary (K-6), Oasis Elementary (K-8), Mountain Vista Elementary (K-6), Saul Martinez Elementary (K-6), Mecca Elementary (K-6), Edward Park Elementary (K-5), Toro Canyon Middle (6-8), Bobby Duke Middle (6-8), John Kelley Elementary (K-6), Coachella Valley High (9-12), Cesar Chavez Elementary (K-6), Cahuilla Desert Academy (Junior High: 7th and 8th grade), Desert Mirage High School (9-12), West Shores High School (9-12) and La Familia Continuation High (9-12).

ources

*U.S. Geological Survey, National Geographic Names Database
*

*Nordland, Ole J., "History of the Coachella Valley County Water District, Second Ed.", (Coachella, California: Coachella Valley Water District, 1978).
*

*"California Region Timetable: 14", (Modesto, California: Altamont Press, 2003).
*U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics

External links