Indian Wells, Imperial County, California

[1] Indian Wells was a watering place between two Lagunas on the New River found by the Kearny and Cooke Expediditons in 1846.

They were subsequently used from the time of the California Gold Rush as a watering place on the Southern Emigrant Trail crossing the Colorado Desert.

Its location is described by the 1854-55 Railroad Expedition report: From Sackett's to the Colorado river the desert appears to the unaided eye a perfect level, but it is shown to be undulating, and composed of several gentle slopes or swells of surface rising to a level terrace in the vicinity of Alamo Mocho.

The two "lagoons" on the desert being now dry, water is obtained from a well dug in the channel which connects them, at a point about half way between, and 14.5 miles from Sackett's.

[1] The Indian Wells post office, located 10 miles (16 km) west of El Centro operated from 1876 to 1877.