The culture of the area blends those of the United States and Mexico, due to its regional history and geographic location along the international border.

[1][2] The Imperial Valley extends southward for 50 miles (80 km) from the southern end of the Salton Sea into Mexico.

It was once part of the Gulf of California, from which it was cut off by the dam-like deposits of the Colorado River Delta Fan as it carved out the Grand Canyon.

Bordered by sand dunes and barren mountains, it was uninhabited until 1901, when the Imperial Canal was opened and diverted Colorado River water into the valley through Mexico.

During winter months the Valley averages more than eight hours of sunshine a day, receiving the most sunlight of any place in the United States.

And the southeastern end of California is the state's poorest region, with lower-income residents making up over half of the year-round population.

Agriculture accounts for one-fourth of jobs with major crops of alfalfa, lettuce, sugar beets and carrots.

The location is host to a number of gray cones reaching heights of six feet (2 m) and depressions filled with bubbling mud.

Heber Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area is south of El Centro and is primarily an off-roading destination.

The valley sand dune recreation area draws hundreds of thousands of off-road enthusiasts.

It was to defend the newly settled community of Yuma, Arizona on the other side of the Colorado River and the nearby Mexican border.

In March 1851 the post was moved to a small elevation on the Colorado's west bank, opposite the present city of Yuma, Arizona, on the site of the former Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción.

[11] NAF El Centro is the winter home of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, The Blue Angels.

NAF El Centro historically starts the Blue Angels' season with their first air show, traditionally held in March.

The Colorado River is a popular destination for water sports including fishing, boating, water-skiing, and jet-skiing.

For many months out of the year, however, no water actually flows from the United States to the gulf, due to human consumption.

Mr. Knight refused substantial donations of money and labor from supporters who wished to modify his message of universal love to favor or disfavor particular groups.

Animals inhabiting the state park include greater roadrunners, golden eagles, kit foxes, southern mule deer and Peninsular bighorn sheep, as well as desert iguanas, chuckwallas, and sidewinders.

[16] The Painted Gorge, on the eastern side of the Coyote Mountains, consists of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks.

Because of its southern latitude, elevation and location in the Colorado Desert, the refuge experiences some of the highest temperatures in the nation.

[18] The border city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, has museums, a zoo, a sports convention center, and an international airport.

Mexico's drinking age of 18 makes it a weekend destination for high school and college-aged Southern Californians.

Although this region is in the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert, with high temperatures and low average rainfall of 3 inches (76 mm) per year, the economy is heavily based on agriculture due to irrigation, which is supplied wholly from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal.

An environmental cost is that, south of the canal, the Colorado River no longer flows above ground at all for much of the year into Mexico.

Imported water and a long growing season allow two crop cycles each year, and the Imperial Valley is a major source of winter fruits and vegetables, cotton, and grain for U.S. and international markets.

The entire valley has multi-racial representation of Africans, Europeans, east and south Asians, and Native Americans.

The El Centro Metropolitan Area is home to 182,972 residents, according to a 2017 US Census estimate, and encompasses the whole Imperial County.

Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction short story "Water Is for Washing" (Argosy, November 1947) was based on the premise that an earthquake had catastrophically shattered the range of deposits separating the Imperial Valley from the Gulf of California, precipitating a tidal wave moving north to transiently drown these lowlands.

At the beginning of the story, Heinlein uses the character of a bartender in El Centro to establish the danger of the quake and inundation:[citation needed] You've heard about the 1905 flood, when the Colorado River spilled over and formed the Salton Sea?

Just imagine the shake-up it must have taken to drop thousands of square miles below the level of the Pacific.Due to its desert environment and proximity to Los Angeles, California, movies are sometimes filmed in the sand dunes outside the agricultural portions of the Imperial Valley.