Desert casita resort opened 1926 — founder Walter Morgan died by suicide in April 1931, his ashes scattered on the grounds he built
49499 Eisenhower Dr, La Quinta, CA 92253
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$$
Resort hotel; room rates vary by season. See website for current pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat resort grounds with paved paths between casitas, pool areas, and public spaces.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1926 · Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture · Coachella Valley Tourism Pioneer · Gordon Kaufmann Design
Walter H. Morgan, whose family fortune derived from the Morgan Oyster Company, selected a parcel in the Coachella Valley at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains to build a private resort retreat. He hired Pasadena architect Gordon Kaufmann — who would later design the Santa Anita Racetrack and the Los Angeles Times Building — to create a campus of 20 Spanish Colonial Revival casitas made from handmade bricks and glazed tiles produced on-site. The resort opened on December 29, 1926, drawing artists, writers, and early Hollywood figures who prized the area's dry heat and quiet.
Morgan's vision emphasized stillness and simplicity. Each casita was named after a Catholic saint, and the grounds were planted with citrus and date palms that gave the property an almost agricultural quietness. The resort attracted a wealthy clientele through its first years of operation.
The 1929 stock market crash cut deeply into the luxury retreat business. By 1931, Morgan's finances had collapsed. In April of that year, he died by suicide. His ashes were spread over the date groves and flower gardens he had planted, and the hotel temporarily closed. The property eventually reopened under different ownership and grew into a sprawling resort with golf courses and hundreds of accommodations.
Today the resort operates as part of the Curio Collection by Hilton, having passed through several institutional owners since the 1990s. The original 1926 casitas remain standing, nearly a century after Morgan built them. A restaurant on property, Morgan's in the Desert, was named in his memory.
Sources
Reports at La Quinta Resort cluster around the original 1926 casitas and the pathways that Morgan himself walked during the resort's early years. Staff accounts, collected over many years, describe a figure in a white flowing gown seen gliding across the grounds at night and a tall man wearing a hat observed inside several bungalows before vanishing. Both figures are typically described as non-threatening.
The Palm Springs Paranormal Investigation Team (PALS) conducted multiple visits to the property. Investigators documented staff testimony about people walking into walls, orbs and figures appearing near the hot tubs before disappearing, television sets turning to static around 3 a.m., and the emergency phone ringing at 3:10 a.m. with no caller. Mediums on the team characterized the entities as peaceful and content — guests, essentially, who never left.
A separate account circulated in local paranormal literature describes a security camera at the resort capturing an unexplained human-shaped figure on the grounds, cited by the PALS team in their reporting on the site. The California Haunted Houses registry lists the resort, noting reports of shaded apparitions and ghostly voices in the bungalows. No threatening activity has been formally documented.
Notable Entities
Book one of the original 1926 Spanish-style casitas or a modern villa at the resort where founder Walter Morgan died in April 1931. Staff have reported apparitions in the bungalows and disembodied voices in common areas. The Palm Springs Paranormal Investigation Team has conducted multiple visits.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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