Palm Canyon

Millard Owen Sheets

Palm Canyon is located just outside of Palms Springs, California, and is a fifteen-mile long stretch of palm-lined recreational oasis sprouting from between jagged desert walls. It is a part of the ancestral homeland of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. As with all oases, the magical nature of lush flora in the middle of a seemingly barren landscape holds an undeniable allure, and it’s likely a place that many Southern California artists visited at the time of Sheets’ lithograph. In the 1950s, when this piece was created, California’s freeways were only just being built and Palm Canyon was still too far a drive for the average traveler.

In historic times, the Cahuilla tribe used the canyon’s natural springs to irrigate corn and squash; today, the tribe is involved in protecting the unique natural habitat, and they oversee the care of its recreational hiking trails and picnicking areas.