Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza

Opening in 2023, the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza in downtown Palm Springs will be a cultural heritage destination celebrating the history, culture, traditions, and modern life of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.

This 5.8-acre complex features the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum with an education garden and The Spa at Séc-he, a state-of-the-art spa fed by the ancient Agua Caliente hot mineral spring. They are joined by the Gathering Plaza and Oasis Trail, activated with flowing water, Washingtonia filifera palm trees (the only palm tree native to the California desert), and stunning rock formations that capture the essence of the Indian Canyons and Tahquitz Canyon, the Agua Caliente people’s ancestral home.

The 48,000-squarefoot museum will offer exhibits and programs covering topics ranging from Agua Caliente history and culture to contemporary land stewardship and conservation. Galleries will focus on the creation and migration stories, the Indian Canyons, Tahquitz Canyon, archaeology, and artistic expressions such as ollas and baskets. Many artifacts, including projectile points, were recovered from the site during construction in 2018 and will be on display. Incredibly, some items were radiocarbondated to be more than 8,000 years old.

For the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, no site is more significant than the hot mineral spring on its ancestral land, in what is now downtown Palm Springs. Its pure mineral water provided a place for ritual bathing, social activity, physical healing, and spiritual connection. They have called the spring Séc-he, the Cahuilla term for “the sound of boiling water,” since the beginning.

The Agua Caliente people have been sharing the healing water with visitors for more than 130 years, even before the turn of the 20th century, making it the valley’s first tourist attraction.

With so many areas to reflect, learn, and experience aspects of Cahuilla heritage, the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza will be a peaceful area to ponder the place the Agua Caliente people call home.