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| Neighborhood History |
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 The history of the neighborhood plays a vital part in the identity of its residents.
Many of these facts were found in a very interesting book written by Trilogy's Gayl Biondi "La Quinta Legends in the Making". This book is available at the Peppertree Book Store in Old Town La Quinta.
From the South West direction we view the Santa Rosa Mountain range. The Santa Rosa Mountains were formed by two plates pushing against each other.
The entire Coachella Valley was once an ancient sea. Because of the Colorado River depositing silt and continuous seismic activity the sea subsided. The Colorado River changed course eventually creating Lake Cahuilla, which is off 60th Avenue to the west. The original lake was 2,000 square miles and covered the eastern valley floor, it was about 40 ft. deep. Historians report that the last large lake was approximately 500 years ago, the lake was gone by 1540. The reminder of that vast lake is the watermarks we can see today from Silverrock down around PGA WEST, around Coral Mountain and past Trilogy. Near Madison and the southwest corner of 58th Avenue there is a 600 acres preserve dedicated to the Bureau of Reclamation and the Coachella Valley Recreations and Park district. If you hike the trails you will see at the base of the mountains up to the water line it has a coral appearance. Geologists identified this calcareous incrustation which was caused by a mixture of calcium carbonate and magnesium deposits and the increase of Ph the cause of what we call a coating of the coral reef and the white crust line as tufa. There are numerous trails that you can hike were you can see and touch the coral. That is also how Coral Mountain got its name.
In the backyard of Trilogy is on of the largest rockslides in North America and the fifth largest slide in the world. Scientist have confirmed that at least four quakes in the valley were capable of creating this slide they were around 800, 1250, 1500 and 1680. The Martinez slide covers 5.2 miles and the debris is 180 feet deep in places. It has been measured as covering 2000 acres, bordered at 55 ft long and 20 ft high, with a total volume of 500 million cubic feet.
Thank you Gayl!
If you have historical facts or photos of our neighborhood I would like to encourage you to share them with all of us.
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Martinez Slide 1
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Vineyards behind Trilogy
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View from the Berm
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