Palm Desert, CA news and local guide

The first large-scale development came in 1943 with the Army's Desert Training Center, built under General George S. Patton to prepare troops for North Africa. After the war Randall J. Henderson moved his Desert Magazine to the area and built a Pueblo-style building near Highway 111, and his brother Clifford W. Henderson, an aviation promoter who envisioned a planned desert community, bought about 1,622 acres and in March 1945 formed the Palm Desert Corporation with investors including Edgar Bergen and Leonard Firestone. Their brother-in-law, the landscape designer Tommy Tomson, laid out the streets. A post office opened on July 14, 1947, and in 1948 the corporation began building the Shadow Mountain Club, with its figure-eight pool, golf course and hotel. In 1951 the town took the name Palm Desert and absorbed Palm Village. Part of the old training center south of Highway 111 became El Paseo, an upscale shopping district modeled on Rodeo Drive. Palm Desert was incorporated on November 26, 1973. Sources Wikipedia: Palm Desert, California