Corn Springs, a palm oasis and archaeological site in California’s Colorado Desert, has long been a rare dependable water source in the Chuckwalla Mountains. Native peoples, including the Chemehuevi, Desert Cahuilla, and Yuma bands, used it for thousands of years, leaving petroglyphs nearby, some said to be more than 10,000 years old. The spring later supported prospecting and ore processing, and the Corn Springs Mining District was organized in 1897. Gus Lederer, the self-styled “Mayor of Corn Springs,” lived there until his death in 1932. Today the site is valued for its oasis landscape, rock art, Native history, and mining remains.