![]() While Indio started as a railroad town, it soon became agricultural. It was at the center of all social life in the desert with a fancy dining room and hosting dances on Friday nights. Southern Pacific tried to make life as comfortable as it could for their workers to keep them from leaving such a difficult area to live in at the time. The first permanent building was the craftsman-style Southern Pacific Depot station and hotel. After the railroad's arrival in 1876, Indio really started to grow. At first, the would-be city was called Indian Wells, : 292 but since many other areas already had that name, Indio (after a Spanish variation of the word "Indian") was chosen instead. The City of Indio came about because of the need for a halfway point for the Southern Pacific Railroad between Yuma, Arizona and Los Angeles, since the engines needed to be refilled with water. But the rail-head of the T & P was at a standstill far off in Texas, so Southern Pacific continued building eastward. The Southern Pacific Railroad was to have joined those of the Texas & Pacific, one of several railroads then holding, or seeking, federal authority to build lines from various sections of the country west to the Pacific Coast. There was a delay in getting military authority to lay tracks across the Yuma Indian reservation, and it was September that year before the bridge was completed so trains could operate into Yuma. Moving on eastward from Indio, the railroad reached the west bank of the Colorado River opposite Yuma on (a village known as Arizona City prior to 1873). Trains were operated to Colton on July 16, 1875, and to Indio (then Indian Wells) on May 29, 1876. Railroad line construction east out of Los Angeles began in 1873. Indio is within the ancestral lands the Desert Cahuilla Indians whose headquarters is in Thermal, California. Indio is the principal city of an urban area defined by the United States Census Bureau that is located in the Coachella Valley: the Indio– Palm Desert–Palm Springs CA urban area had a population of 361,075 as of the 2020 census, making it the 114th largest in the United States. It was later nicknamed the City of Festivals, a reference to the numerous cultural events held in the city, most notably the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Indio is the most populous city in the Coachella Valley, and was formerly referred to as the Hub of the Valley after a Chamber of Commerce slogan used in the 1970s. The population was 89,137 in the 2020 United States Census, up from 76,036 at the 2010 census, an increase of 17%. ![]() It lies 23 miles (37 km) east of Palm Springs, 75 miles (121 km) east of Riverside, 127 miles (204 km) east of Los Angeles, 148 miles (238 km) northeast of San Diego, 250 miles (400 km) west of Phoenix, and 102 miles (164 km) north of Mexicali, Mexico. Indio ( Spanish for "Indian") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region.
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