Talk:Mecca, California

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Someone left the following on my user page:


 * It looks like you have done some contributing to the page on Mecca, Ca. An interesting fact I haven't seen mentioned(and can't find reference material about) is that Mecca, Ca. was the site of the first Date orchard planted in the U.S. The roughly 40 acres at the southeast corner of Johnson St. and National Ave. is the location. There are still some of the very first trees planted in this country there producing fruit. The groves have been through cycles of cultivation and neglect. There was a good variety of trees planted. I don't know the full story but in the early 1970's I lived on the ranch for a time and worked for the owner. He hired a hand with date production experience and nursed the abandoned groves back into production. The story was that in the early 1900's the person who established the ranch had brought the young date trees from the middle east and it was the first know cultivation of dates in the country. An interesting side story I heard many times was that the gnat that was/is such a pest in the Coachella Valley was actually imported by the burgeoning date industry as it was thought by some that the insect was an important part of the date fertilization cycle. In the summer time the gnats are a constant pest causing people outdoors to constantly wave their hand in front of their faces. The popular term for this activity is the "Mecca Salute". The owner's grandmother owned the mostly abandoned "resort" type structure on the southern portion of the ranch. It is still visable in aerial images. He told an anecdote about her first visit to the area many years ago. Apparently she remarked "what a friendly town this must be, everyone is waving" not aware that they were just trying to shoo the pesky insects away from their faces. I am not familiar with how Wikipedia works at the point and don't know if any of this information is useable/submittable. It would be a shame to have it disappear. I'm sure there must be someone in the area that could add to or verify this data. Don't know if at this point I can be of much more help. M. Deacon Hemet, Ca., Christmas 2006


 * pulled from user page User:David Jordan 3/31/2007

External link not relevant
The external link has a wonderful 14 years old Huell Howser show that, sadly, has nothing to do with Mecca. The town is mentioned once. Huell spends the first half of the show in an agricultural field between Mecca and Thermal. The rest of the show is done from Coachella, approximately 10 miles north of Mecca. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.243.1.164 (talk) 02:16, 6 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Just as the suburbs around Los Angeles serve to unify that region, the agriculture in that end of the Coachella Valley does the same thing. It's a minor link, but gives an idea of what the area is about, especially considering the overwhelming agricultural based economy. IMO it qualifies under WP:ELYES as it contains "neutral and accurate material that is relevant to an encyclopedic understanding of the subject..." – S. Rich (talk) 02:28, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Who named this city 'Mecca' and why?
Hello, I drove by Salton Sea and Mecca a couple of years ago. I find it interesting that the holiest city (Muslims) is Mecca and thsi small town is also called Mecca. Anyone knows who gave this city this name?

irfan1@hotmail.com


 * According to this article which cites Cecelia Foulkes' “Mecca: A California Desert History,” the name of the California place refers to its desert climate.—Stepheng3 (talk) 19:01, 26 November 2014 (UTC)


 * As the area is completely arid, desert and Arabia related themes often show up in the communities. For example, the Coachella Valley High School are known now as the Mighty Arabs after controversy arose about the Arab image they had had. See: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/12/arab-mascot-coachella.html  Dates are a major crop in the area, but ironically they came from North Africa. – S. Rich (talk) 03:05, 27 November 2014 (UTC)
 * This is Irfan Sarwar btw 2601:246:5E01:C3F0:E430:921D:83EB:8CC8 (talk) 06:54, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
 * This is May 2023. All these years I visited the place twice again but never checked here Never thought anyone would care. Thank you so much!!! 2601:246:5E01:C3F0:E430:921D:83EB:8CC8 (talk) 06:54, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

Religion demographics
can anyone provide religion demographics? even if there are no Muslims here, you can add "Surprisingly, Mecca has no Muslims in it". kinda fun.

SammyMajed (talk) 06:39, 26 January 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150215082903/http://archive.desertsun.com/article/20120325/NEWS07/203240350/Mecca-proud-self-reliant-united-community-Desert-Sun-investigation-iSun to http://archive.desertsun.com/article/20120325/NEWS07/203240350/Mecca-proud-self-reliant-united-community-Desert-Sun-investigation-iSun

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