Coachella: A Misspelled Shell

The city of Coachella probably got its name from a misspelling of the Spanish word conchilla, though the city says the origin is unclear. When the Southern Pacific laid tracks through the valley in eighteen seventy-six, workers found fossilized shells in the dry lakebed soil. Spanish settlers had called the area Conchilla, meaning little shell. A popular story blames an engineer's messy handwriting, but residents actually voted for the name in nineteen oh one, replacing Woodspur.

A railroad employee named Jason Rector cleared the trees at the original townsite, a three-car side spur called Woodspur, and became the settlement's first permanent resident. The surrounding Coachella Valley grew into a major agricultural zone, producing dates, citrus, and grapes, fed by artesian wells and later by the Coachella Canal. Today most visitors know the valley for its music festival, which borrowed the name of a city whose name may itself be a misspelling.