The Cabot Pueblo Museum

The ingenuity of some people never fail to amaze me. I always thought I was good at time management and able to fit a lot of stuff that I love to do into my day to day life. Some people just make even me go ‘hmm, I think that guy had waayyy too much time on his hands. Like Ed Leedskalnin of the Coral Castle fame in Homestead FL. This guy at 5ft tall and 90 lbs carved huge blocks of coral rock from the property he owned and built a huge estate, by himself, at night. He once said he discovered the secrets of the ancient Egyptians. There was a door at the Coral Castle that was several tons and he positioned it so that it opened easily with the push of a hand on the door. If it wasn’t enough to do this once, he decided to move 10 miles down the road and transport his house stone by stone to the new location, by himself, at night.

Well I discovered there was a west coast version of Ed and his name is Cabot Yerxa. Although his first name is Cabot, he was in fact related to the Cabot family of the New England  Boston Cabot family. Yes the Cabot cheese family. Well the family was depicted as hard working and the Yerxa’s family had amassed a good deal of wealth in the department store business. Cabot was well educated and well traveled.

Once the Yukon gold rush hit Cabot being an adventurer decided to go to Alaska with a large amount of cigars to sell to the miners. He did a small bit of prospecting, but did not make any money at it. After selling cigars in Alaska he heard about homesteading and decided he wanted 160 acres of free land. He decided upon what is now Desert Hot Springs California.

He used a dowsing rod/witching stick to find the water. He choose a good spot. Due to the hot springs in the area his home had hot and cold running water. He started building his house and his wife at the time did not like desert dwelling so she’d go to Seattle to live. They divorced and he remarried some years later. His second wife lived with him in the pueblo throughout their marriage.

His house was constructed and built solely by Cabot. It has 34 rooms. There was an endearing story about how he had a special place in his heart for his donkey. The donkey had saved his life one time when he gotten lost in the desert. He called the donkey, Merry Christmas. Cabot did what any grateful person would do, so he let Merry Christmas the donkey, live in the house.

Cabot was a very resourceful man. Just about the entire house was made from recycled material. No two windows in the house were the same. Enjoy the pictures.

When you are feeling like a lump, let the spirit of these two guys (Ed and Cabot) inspire you to do something a little bit awesome and when you think ‘I can’t.’ Think of these two guys and hopefully they will change your attitude to ‘I Can.’

As a side note Desert Hot Springs has a ton of spas and you can get your chill on and enjoy the water from the hot springs which are also supposed to be medicinal.