Desert Hot Springs;

A Look Back

Buzz Gambill

In recognition of our City’s Forty-third Anniversary, since incorporation on September 17, 1963, the Valley Breeze would like to take a “Glance Back” at some of the remarkable efforts by our pioneers, that made it possible for Desert Hot Springs to make it this far.

We normally hear about the accomplishments of men like Cabot Yerxa, L.W. Coffee, Aubrey Wardman.
This in no way takes credit from them, but a man not quite as well-known was just as important... maybe even more.
He was Bill Tarbutton. Some called him the Water Witch of the Coachella Valley. He was a Desert Hot Springs pioneer who still has family in the community. A niece, Betty Hudspeth who grew up in DHS and will soon celebrate birthday 92.
Bill was a rugged man who drilled hundreds of wells around the valley. This one was a tough one for him but it paid off. The well came in at 200 degrees! The well was dug 3 miles away from Desert Hot Springs at the Desert Crest Park. It was soon called the “hottest well on the desert.”
Other U.S. papers researching the facts discovered that the Lucky 7 was actually the hottest water well in the country. Maybe in the world.
As soon as the water was said to be 200 degrees, the local newspaper, the Desert Sentinel had it in the headlines, and quickly, the Press Enterprise picked it up.
Soon a day was planned to celebrate the well.
People who read the story in the Press Enterprise rushed to the desert to get the unincorporated city to prove that the well was really that hot.
Some 500 out-of-towners showed up at the Lucky 7 Hot Water Well on May 7, 1950, and as the star of the day, Bill Tarbutton “jetted” Lucky 7, a full day of celebration was held. Hot coffee was made from the water and Desert Crest and Desert Hot Springs glowed in the national spotlight, as the story was carried all across the United States.