Desert Hot Springs, California
39 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Desert Hot Springs census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92240. It stands on Big Morongo Wash. The Survey maps it on the Desert Hot Springs quadrangle. 32,512 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,076 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1901 to 1984The same ground, surveyed 83 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1901 against another survey:
On record in Desert Hot Springs
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museumlisted 2012
Population over time
2 figuresDesert Hot Springs grew from 25,938 to 32,512 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 25,938 | |
| 2020 | 32,512 | +6,574 (+25%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
14 surveys from 39 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1901 USGS San Jacinto quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1940 USGS Palm Springs quadrangle1:62500
- 1944 USGS Palm Springs quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Desert Hot Springs quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Palm Springs quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Palm Springs quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
562 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 562 fires within 5 miles of Desert Hot Springs between 1992 and 2020, burning about 851 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 57 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 305 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 69 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 62 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 57 |
| Smoking | 40 |
| Debris and open burning | 16 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Desert District | LONG |
| 9 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Desert District | LOCAL |
| 9 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 190 acres | California Desert District | INDIAN |
| 8 September 2007 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | California Desert District | UNNAMED FIRE 3130 |
| 8 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Riverside Unit | LOCAL |
| 8 September 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Riverside Unit | PEREZ |
| 6 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Riverside Unit | RIDGE CREST WY DHSP |
| 6 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Riverside Unit | IRONWOOD DR / MESQUITE AV |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
9 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Desert Hot Springs: 3 past producers, 2 prospects, 2 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper, Geothermal. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cactus Hill Mine | Copper, Zinc, Gold, Lead, Silver | Prospect | ||
| Desert Hot Springs | Geothermal | Producer | ||
| Hager-Kale Claim | Gold | Unknown | ||
| Whitestone Deposit | Limestone, General | Occurrence | ||
| Blind Canyon Deposit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Desert Hot Springs Ready Mix | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Indian Copper Mine | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Mission Creek Deposit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Marble Deposit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
1 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Desert Hot Springs in 1 storm report in 1994: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Desert Hot Springs | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds lifted portions of roofs of several buildings, and uprooted trees and downed power lines in Desert Hot Springs, along Palm Drive. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dos Palmas Corners | 2.5 miles | 39 | |
| North Palm Springs | 3.4 miles | 39 | |
| Desert Edge | 4.1 miles | 22 | |
| Garnet | 4.7 miles | 39 | |
| Salvia | 6.1 miles | 43 | |
| Bonnie Bell | 7.6 miles | 40 | |
| White Water | 7.7 miles | 40 | |
| Rimlon | 9.1 miles | 26 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Desert Hot Springs | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q573096 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1656484. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.













