The quaint community of Borrego Springs lies within the picturesque Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The largest state park of its kind in all California, the location is celebrated for its wonderfully conserved biome. However, the region is also historic, with the first inhabitants settling it close to 6,000 years ago. While archeological evidence has indicated that many diverse cultures lived in the region over that period, the best-known residents were the Kumeyaay and the Cahuilla. Although possessing different languages, archeologists have nonetheless discovered that both groups practiced similar lifestyles during their time in the region. For instance, both societies were sedentary, migrating seasonally between the mountains and desert lowlands. But the Kumeyaay and Cahuilla still established a network of temporary agricultural communities that grew a variety of crops like agave and mesquite beans. Furthermore, the presence of ancient trailheads revealed that the two ventured deep into the desert’s undulating topography to hunt wild game. In turn, those hunters left behind a stunning series of wall carvings and cave paintings in their wake, which still survive today. Then in the 18th century, Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza led a historic expedition from colonial Mexico to what is now the American state of California. Intent on finding a land route that connected the neighboring territories, Anza had hoped his journey would result in the creation of a new coastal settlement.  

In 1775, Anza and 300 fellow adventurers headed for California, traversing their way north through the Sonoran Desert for several weeks. Arriving in Arizona that October, Anza’s party proceeded to wheel west, fording the Colorado River before entering the Colorado Desert. The settlers then reached the Borrego Valley in December, moving along a geological feature called “Coyote Canyon” to exit the area. Reaching the Pacific Ocean not long thereafter, the group finally reached San Francisco Bay the following June and built the Presidio of San Francisco. Still, the Borrego Desert remained a remote place until conservationists championed its preservation generations later in the 20th century. Concern among California’s conservationists had grown throughout the 1920s, as similar desert landscapes were redeveloped to complete many infrastructure projects. After spending several years advocating for its protection, the naturalists succeeded in convincing the California State Park Commission to set aside 83,000 acres in 1933. Acquisition of the land had begun a year prior, although complicated title transfers managed to delay its debut by a few months. Despite the interruption, the newly christened “Anza-Borrego Desert State Park” quickly emerged as one of Southern California’s most celebrated cultural attractions. Indeed, hundreds of eager tourists started making the trek out from San Diego, even though adequate transportation routes had yet to reach the park.   

The widespread interest subsequently enabled state legislators to gradually expand the site over the remainder of the decade, enlarging its size to eventually encompass a whole fifth of the surrounding San Diego County. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has since preserved its popularity well into the present, continuing to host around 200,000 tourists annually. It's gorgeous, untouched geography remains its main draw, with legions of hikers arriving to negotiate its bucolic mountain trails annually. Another one of the park’s most prominent features is its open expanse of sky, which has granted amateur astronomers the perfect opportunity to experience unobstructed stargazing. (The International Dark-Sky Association even declared the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to be one of its International Dark Sky Parks in 2018.) But guests also enjoy experiencing the region’s rich environment, as it constitutes a portion of the fascinating Colorado Desert ecosystem. Many rare types of plant life call the park home, such as California’s only native palm tree—the California fan palm. Additionally, the park is the site of a natural phenomenon called a “super bloom,’ in which entire sections of its landscape are subjected to the simultaneous blossoming of the local wildflower population. Many distinctive animal species have been seen within the park, too, including black-tailed jackrabbits, kit foxes, and bighorn sheep. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is even home to a few interesting historical landmarks, such as campsite markers that denote the path the Anza party took through the area. In fact, those campsites are contributing sites to the National Park Service’s preserved Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail! 

When hotel manager Noel Crickmer first designed La Casa Del Zorro Desert Resort & Spa during the 1930s, he chose Spanish Colonial Revival architecture as the main source of his inspiration. Also known as “Spanish Eclectic,” Spanish Colonial Revival-style architectural form is a representation of themes typically seen in early Spanish colonial settlements. Original Spanish colonial architecture borrowed its design principles from Moorish, Renaissance, and Byzantine forms, which made it incredibly decorative and ornate. The general layout of those structures called for a central courtyard, as well as thick stucco walls that could endure Latin America’s diverse climate. Among the most recognizable features within those colonial buildings involved heavy carved doors, spiraled columns, and gabled red-tile roofs. Architect Bertram Goodhue was the first to widely popularize Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States, spawning a movement to incorporate the style more broadly in American culture at the beginning of the 20th century. Goodhue received a platform for his designs at the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, in which Spanish Colonial architecture was exposed to a national audience for the first time. His push to preserve the form led to a revivalist movement that saw widespread use of Spanish Colonial architecture throughout the country, specifically in California and Florida. Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture reached its zenith during the early 1930s, although a few American businesspeople continued to embrace the form well into the latter half of the 20th century. 

• George S. Patton noted general who led the American Third and Seventh Armies during World War II. 

• Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (1969 – 1974) 

• Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States (1981 – 1989)