The Cahuilla Indians were the original inhabitants of Cathedral City. They lived throughout the Coachella Valley for more than two thousand years. In 1850, Col. Henry Washington of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discovered that the area's canyons resembled the interior of a grand cathedral. Recording history, he named this canyon Cathedral Canyon. Early developers later built the area's first subdivision and named it Cathedral City, California.
This is a town at the SE edge of Palm Springs in Riverside County.
Cathedral City is part of the Riverside-San Bernardino, California metro area.