Cathedral City:

Is actually named after a Canyon South of town, in fact there is no Cathedral in Cathedral City at all. Legend has it that it was once a gangster hideaway and there were illegal gambling halls and saloons sprinkled throughout the area.

Today Cathedral City has a year round population of about 50,000 people. Home to the Deserts only IMAX theatre, many auto dealerships, a Downtown undergoing a dramatic makeover, A multi purpose sports facility called Field Of Dreams and many quiet neighborhoods and country clubs.

Interesting Cathedral City Facts:

• The neighborhood of Minerva Drive has an annual Christmas time light event every December since the first event held in 1987. The homeowners heavily decorate the block's 35 homes and lawns, and streetlights are even covered in holiday decor draws in tens of thousands of spectators to Minerva Drive for a look. It is often renamed Candy Cane Lane during the annual light show.

• Cathedral City hosts an annual Mexican Independence Day festival on every third weekend of September, also has an "el Grito de Dolores" to commemorate the event at the city hall/movie theater complex. The city has an economic partnership with the Mexican state of Jalisco, a large source of local immigration.

• Chicano folk musician, Lalo Guerrero lived in Cathedral City in his final years. Also the city was the teenage home of actress Suzanne Somers, and a winter residence for actors Robert Duvall and Martin Landau in the 1960s, and TV show host Monty Hall in the 1990s. Also US representative and football athlete Jack Kemp owned an auto dealership in Cathedral City

• The Field of Dreams softball complex on the corner of Date Palm and Dinah Shore drives, made up of four softball fields designed as replicas of four major league ballparks. The Pepsi All-Star Softball Game was held there since 1998.

• Cathedral City High School opened in 1991 is a major educational and recreational center to the city. The varsity football and basketball teams had earned CIF-southern California championship runs in the late 1990's and early 2000's.