The Yerxa family lived in the Boston area where they ran mercantile stores quite successfully. Frederick Yerxa met Nellie Cabot at the Yerxa Department Store. Nellie was from the Cabot Lodge family. Both families were affluent and prominent in Boston society. One can only imagine the surprise when newlyweds Fred and Nellie announced that they were moving to the Wild West. To understand why, we must go back to the early days of American history.

In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson had negotiated the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon Bonaparte. As anyone who ever watched a Gunsmoke knows, the next century was about the settlement of the west. Westward migration, Manifest Destiny. Sea to shining sea. Many heroic stories; some horrifying. In many ways, the story of the Yerxa family is the story of the American West, with one exception. Cabot loved Indians.

If Cabot had done nothing else, his life would teach us that prejudice and bigotry are not innate. They are learned. In 1882, Cabot's parents moved to Hamilton Settlement, Dakota Territories, where they ran the Trading Post on the Lakota Reservation. Cabot Abram Yerxa was born there a year later on June 11, 1883. As the only white child on the reservation, Cabot didn't know he was different. He just knew the other children were his friends.

And so it was to be the rest of Cabot's life. Whether he traveled to Mexico, Cuba, Alaska, France, England, or even Southern California, Cabot sought out and communicated with indigenous peoples. He alone was the only white man to live with an Inuit family during the Klondike Gold Rush, translating the Inuit language into English, selling the dictionary to the Smithsonian Institute where it resides to this day. He alone befriended Semu, the last full-blooded Medicine Man of the Chumash Tribe who became Cabot's closest friend. And it was he alone who built his greatest tribute to Native Americans, Cabot's Old Indian Pueblo Museum a California Registered Historical Point of Interest.

In 1912, after a disastrous investment in an orange orchard, the Yerxa family was devastated. Cabot was suddenly penniless. He came to the desert where for $10 you could homestead 160 acres. Cabot arrived at the Garnet Train Depot. The first house, Eagles Nest, was a 10 by 20 shack.

In 1913 Cabot dug his first well, hitting water 132 degrees Fahrenheit. Months later, and 600 yards away, he hit another well with water that was odorless, colorless, and only 80 degrees. So, Cabot called his home Miracle Hill, a name it holds to this day. Years later, Cabot and L.W. Coffee would begin what is now California's Spa City, Desert Hot Springs. Cabot began building what he called his “castle on Miracle Hill.” He wrote to his future wife Portia Graham that they would be king and queen of Miracle Hill. And so they were.

Cabot's Pueblo Museum was open to the public. Cabot would proudly show his art and the collections he had acquired during his world travels. The pueblo became an Artists' Colony, where plein air artists would live and create. The museum attracted Hollywood stars and moguls. Jann Wampler, currently dean of architecture at MIT, wrote a book in the mid 70s in which he cited the 25 most unique buildings in the United States. Cabot's Pueblo is one of them. Cabot was written about in the New York Times before he died.

Despite all his travels and adventures, Desert Hot Springs was his spiritual home. He and Portia held non-denominational services in the Altar in the Wilderness behind the pueblo. Cabot loved his hometown. He started the first VFW in town. A 32nd degree Mason, Cabot helped found the Masonic Lodge. Cabot began the city library and helped raise funds for the Fire House. He was the founder of the Desert Hot Springs Improvement Association.

Although Cabot was a learned man who spoke five languages, studied art in Paris and London at prestigious academies, worked as a journalist, traveled the world, dug for gold, and discovered our hot waters and our award-winning world-famous drinking water--in spite of all this--Cabot was not afforded much public education. Yet his thirst for knowledge was unlimited. For a few years between ages eight and 14, he attended schools irregularly in Minneapolis, but mostly Cabot was self-taught.

Cabot's good deeds and philanthropy were legendary. When he died on March 5, 1965, the city mourned. Flags were flown at half staff. City Hall was closed and more than 400 people attended his funeral. Cabot was a friend of presidents from Porfirio Diaz to Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower--and a friend of paupers. His friendships spanned the globe. How fortunate for us today that he chose this place to live and create.