Indian Wells, Imperial County, California
human settlement in California, United States of America
Indian Wells is a former settlement in Imperial County, California. It was located 8 miles (13 km) south-southwest of Seeley.
Indian Wells was a watering place between two Lagunas on the New River found by the Kearny and Cooke Expediditons in 1846. They were subsequently used from the time of the California Gold Rush as a watering place on the Southern Emigrant Trail crossing the Colorado Desert. Its location is described by the 1854-55 Railroad Expedition report:
From Sackett's to the Colorado river the desert appears to the unaided eye a perfect level, but it is shown to be undulating, and composed of several gentle slopes or swells of surface rising to a level terrace in the vicinity of Alamo Mocho. The two "lagoons" on the desert being now dry, water is obtained from a well dug in the channel which connects them, at a point about half way between, and 14.5 miles from Sackett's. This watering place is known by the name of "Indian Wells." The water is at a depth of about 30 feet, and is of tolerable quality. From here to Alamo Mocho is a stretch of 20 miles without water, over a surface generally even and free of obstructions."
Indian Wells was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Stage line. The Indian Wells post office, located 10 miles (16 km) west of El Centro operated from 1876 to 1877. The site of Indian Wells was obliterated by the 1906 flood of the New River, when the Colorado River changed course and filled the Salton Sea, scouring a deeper and wider channel for the New River.
“Indian Wells, Imperial County, California” enters the record as human settlement in California, United States of America. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Indian, Wells and Imperial can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6021849. Authority coordinates are 32.734, -115.620. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1846, 1854, 1876 and 1877.
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This entry incorporates text from “Indian Wells, Imperial County, California” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.