Indio
City of Festivals
If Bob Dylan ever decides to be part of the internationally acclaimed Coachella Music and Arts Festival held each year in Indio, city leaders might request he sing “The Times They Are A-Changin.’”
The history of Indio is steeped in change. Its first inhabitants were Native Americans who chose to settle along the San Andreas Fault in the Indio Hills and along the Whitewater River.
Surveyors from the Southern Pacific Railroad also chose Indio as a suitable location for a railroad depot. The community was halfway between Yuma and Los Angeles, plus there was a substantial labor pool available from the Indian reservations.
In 1930, Indio incorporated as a city. Its population was 1,875. With the construction of the All American Canal, the agricultural industry took off and was promptly followed by increased retail, tourism, and of course, population.
Downtown Indio flourished from the 1940s through the early 1970s but then retail shops and restaurants went out of business or left for other locations.
