Treasure trove of artifacts found in Desert Hot Springs museum

By Marcel Honore

A site that Desert Hot Springs officials once considered bulldozing could contain one of the nation's most significant and eclectic treasure troves of Native American art, experts say. For the first time, appraisers are examining the collection of early Desert Hot Springs pioneer and adventurer Cabot Yerxa at the city-owned Cabot's Pueblo Museum, which Yerxa built.

 

The diverse collection could be more nationally significant than anyone realized, said Gwen Yeaman, a 19-year veteran appraiser of American Indian art.

 

It includes 1,500-year-old pottery, Eskimo toys, tribal tools used to make baskets, thousands of black-and-white photographs from the 1880s and impressionist paintings, said Michael O'Keefe, president of Cabot's Museum Foundation.

 

This is the real deal. This is the American West. It's not just a local thing,” O'Keefe said.

 

Yeaman said Yerxa's is the most varied collection she's seen compiled by just two people Yerxa and his wife, Portia.

“There's some real depth, it's not just coming to see a pretty collection,” she said. “It really is significant. It's pretty neat that this has been able to survive all this time.”

 

The city hired the Indianapolis- based Yeaman in October to visit Cabot's. She expected to spend several days, but wound up staying nearly two weeks and still isn't finished. She aims to return before Thanksgiving.

 

“People just thought it was this quirky old house. Nobody knew the things he had collected,” he added. “We're just now uncovering those secrets. It's really an adventure.”

 

O'Keefe and Yeaman said it's too early to say how much the collection could be worth.

 

However, the city of Desert Hot Springs has boosted the museum's insurance policy from $1 million to $2 million since Yeaman began her work and is increasing security to protect the collection, City Manager Rick Daniels said Thursday.

 

Yerxa, born in 1883, lived a storied existence. He befriended President Theodore Roosevelt, panned for gold in Alaska and discovered Desert Hot Springs' namesake mineral waters.

 

“He had a really colorful life,” O'Keefe said. Yerxa grew up the only Caucasian on the Sioux Reservation in the Dakota Territories and stayed with indigenous people wherever he traveled, O'Keefe said.

 

He campaigned for American Indian rights, O'Keefe added. Yerxa eventually settled in what became Desert Hot Springs.

 

After his death in 1965, the City Council deemed his pueblo home a public nuisance and voted to bulldoze it, O'Keefe said.

 

However, a local resident named Cole Eyraud squatted on the property, refused to leave and eventually purchased it.

Eyraud's daughter, Trudi, donated the property to the city in 1998, O'Keefe said.

 

At its regular meeting Tuesday, the Desert Hot Springs City Council likely will extend its existing $25,000 contract with Yeaman's company, Native Appraisal LLC, to $75,000 so she can finish the work.

“I am excited about the city understanding what they have,” Yeaman said Thursday.

 

“What she uncovered was so staggering,” O'Keefe said. Officials with Cabot's Pueblo Museum are beside themselves with excitement at the possibility that the museum is filled with highly valuable artifacts collected by the museum's namesake founder Cabot Yerxa.

“The thrill of discovery is almost unbearable,” said Barbara Maron, vice president of the Cabot's Museum Foundation board, on Friday. “It confirms what we've been screaming about.”

 

And, while the values of the various artifacts is are still being assessed, foundation board president Michael O'Keefe said the city has increased its insurance policy in anticipation of a large assessment.

 

“It is like Christmas Eve,” O'Keefe said. “We know that the artifacts are valuable, but what's valuable to us is the story of Cabot.”

 

 

Following are some of the artifacts being appraised:

 

• An autographed Mark Twain book.

• An invitation to President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower's inaugural ball.

• Tightly woven Indian baskets that can hold water.

• Ancient Indian pottery dating back more than 1,500 years and other pre-Columbian  artifacts.

• Thousands of early black-and-white photographs from the1800s, some taken in the  streets of Havana before the end of the Spanish-American war.

• Original black-and-white pictures by famed frontier photographer Edward Curtis.

• A 1911 letter from Teddy Roosevelt.

• Hand-beaded moccasins from the days of Little Bighorn and Gen. George A. Custer.

• A third-phase Indian chief's blanket that could be valued in the six figures.

 

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