Oral history is a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people and communities. The Historical Society’s most recent Oral History Project launched in 2023 and highlights people who helped create our amazing city. These interviews are produced on video, and once they are lightly edited for clarity, they are posted on the HSPD YouTube channel.

We are always looking for interviewees. If you think you might be interested, know someone who would be a good candidate or just have a question, leave a message for Leslie Roth, Lead Interviewer, at the Firehouse Museum at (760) 346-6588.

From 1979 to 1981 the Historical Society, in partnership with Fullerton State University, conducted over 100 oral interviews in the Coachella Valley. These are audio interviews and are posted on the Internet courtesy of the California State Library and the Internet Archive (link here). Listen to the stories from 1908 to the 1970’s, and the memories of early farming pioneers in Indio and Indian Wells, early entrepreneurs in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, and the founders of Palm Desert, the Henderson clan, as well as many other movers and shakers and just plain folks.