We especially love the fact that it is a smaller, more intimate community and has a real connection to Rancho Mirage’s past, including its proximity to the adjacent Thunderbird and Tamarisk Country Clubs: it is close to, but separate of, that part of Rancho Mirage that really transformed the unincorporated desert areas beginning as early as the 1950s into what the Coachella Valley is associated with today.
Many properties both large and small along Frank Sinatra Drive became a magnet for politicians, sports celebrities, and titans of industry – including Bing Crosby, the Marx Brothers, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Howard and Anita Richmond, Phil Harris and Alice Faye, Ralph Kiner, Ben Hogan, Jimmy Hines, Leonard Firestone, Robert McCulloch, steel magnate Earle Jorgensen, and publisher Walter Annenberg – the creator of Sunnylands. US Presidents also arrived, starting with Eisenhower in 1954, continuing with Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, Ford, through to Obama.
We remember fondly the many presidential weekend visits in February throughout the years, in which we would watch the motorcades driving to and from Sunnylands to the airport, as the CHP officers playfully interacted with us and the kids standing by.
Despite these excitements and being loosely part of what has been described as “Filmland Annex”, the beauty of Tamarisk Villas (Wonder Palms) however lies in its more intimate and thus more private setting as a 20 quad community. In other words, it is as private as you want it to be. The grounds are beautiful and serene, with the pool, spa, and the bountiful citrus trees throughout making it a classic desert retreat.