Interesting Facts

Palm Springs has long been a getaway for celebrities from Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra to Madonna. Albert Einstein strolled nearby canyons in his slippers. Landmarks like the honeymoon cottage of Clark Gable and Carole Lumbard and Liberace's ornate mansion are featured on bus tours.
One of Palm Springs' famous guests was Al Capone. The Chicago mobster of the 1920s used the Two Bunch Palms resort as a hideaway from police and rival gangs. His home was Suite 14.
With its bleak landscape, deep blue skies and rugged rock formations, nearby Joshua Tree National Park is a must-see. President Clinton created the national park, one of the country's premier rock-climbing areas, in 1994. The granite outcrops were shaped over thousands of years by erosion and wind.
A golf-lovers desert oasis. The Palm Springs area features more than 100 golf courses. PGA West in LaQuinta offers courses designed by such golfing greats as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman.
Don Quixote had Spain, but there are more than a few windmills to tilt at here. Wind Farm Tours offers an electric car ride through a field of 4,000 super-size windmills that generate electricity for the state.
This vacation place to the stars was a natural setting for pop culture and politics to cross paths. Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher fame served as mayor of Palm Springs from 1988 to 1991 after running for office because of a zoning dispute over his restaurant. He served in Congress before dying in a ski accident.
Palm Springs did not always have the reputation as a glitzy getaway. One early resident, J. Smeaton Chase, described the area at the beginning of the 20th century as "the opposite of all that we naturally find pleasing."
The era of Palm Springs' catering to the lifestyles of the rich and famous began around the time of the opening of the Racquet Club. Actors Ralph Bellamy and Charles Farrell built the club in 1931 on 200 acres of empty desert, and the club to this day launches the Palm Springs social season with its fall parties.
You'd hardly know you were in the desert with all the water around Palm Springs. The city got its name for its natural hot-water springs that Indians believed had magical powers to cure illness. Today, the area also boosts more than 30,000 pools.
Palm Springs is the premier vacation destination spot on the West Coast for gay and lesbian travelers. The city offers a host of resorts, hotels and restaurants catering to gay clientele, and a gay retirement community is in the works. The Dinah Shore golf tournament, also known as the Kraft Nabisco Golf Championship, annually draws thousands of lesbians.