A brief history of California's Cottonwood Spring Oasis

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. All three of my kids live in Los Angeles and this year we visited and went to Joshua Tree National Park, a high desert with fascinating landscapes. Most of the plants are specialized for the extreme environmental conditions there; I loved it, as most were short and I could see them easily. But our water-loving cottonwoods grow there, too, at Cottonwood Spring Oasis. As a result of volcanic activity, a spring is flowing there. It was used by native peoples in past times, during the gold rush in California, miners came there to wash the stream residues away, hoping for those valuable nuggets. And somehow or another, cottonwood seeds ended up there, too, and their brilliant yellow fall color contrasts beautifully with the evergreen fan palms that also grow there, silhouetted against those California blue skies.