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Cabot Yerxa, the desert's original recycler, comes to life in documentary to air on KVCR on Wednesday

DESERT HOT SPRINGS (March 13, 2014) – Cabot Yerxa came to the desert in 1913 to build a life for himself and his family. 

And the story of how he came to the desert will air in a documentary titled “Cabot Yerxa: Building a Dream” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 19 on PBS channel KVCR.

Yerxa traveled the world, but the desert was his home.  He discovered both the natural hot springs and the clear, cool water of the area’s underground aquifer, chronicled life in the desert for the area’s newspaper and starting in 1941, began building the Hopi Indian-style home that would eventually become Cabot’s Pueblo Museum.

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Mindful of his environment, Yerxa’s used recycled materials he found in the desert and hand-made adobe bricks to make his home. As a museum, the pueblo now houses Yerxa’s collections and is one of the hidden gems of Coachella Valley history and an attraction that should not be overlooked by visitors and residents alike.

 His story is caught on the video, “Cabot Yerxa: Building a Dream,” produced by Small World Productions, with the co-operation of the Board of Directors of Cabot’s Pueblo Museum in Desert Hot Springs.

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The documentary debuted at a private screening for more than 200 enthusiastic museum members in December at the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs.  

By using historic and the last few remaining audio clips of his voice, Yerxa himself details his struggles to tame a small piece of the desert, along with his life as an adventurer, traveler, artist, builder, naturalist, Gold Rush entrepreneur and writer, with the Hopi-inspired museum as its backdrop.

KVCR is a PBS station based in San Bernardino and carried on Channel 9 by Time Warner Cable in the Coachella and across Southern California by TWC.


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