Salton Lake

The Salton basin lies below sea level in the desert west of the Colorado River. In earlier centuries the river periodically changed course and filled the depression with a great freshwater lake, known as Lake Cahuilla. Its waters covered parts of the Coachella and Imperial valleys, leaving shorelines on the surrounding hills. When the river returned to the Gulf of California, the lake gradually evaporated, transforming the resources available to the Indigenous peoples of the basin.