Indio, California

===Old Town Historic Mural Program===
In the fall of 1996, the Indio Chamber of Commerce formed a committee to develop a Historic Mural Project to help revitalize the local economy at the time of the statewide economic recession. Several communities have benefited from similar programs, such as [[Chemainus, British Columbia|Chemainus, Canada]]; [[El Paso, Texas]]; and [[Eureka, California|Eureka]], [[Bishop, California|Bishop]], [[Needles, California|Needles]], & [[Twentynine Palms, California|29 Palms]] in California, as well the famous [[Chicano Park]] mural to commemorate Hispanic-American life in Barrio Logan, [[San Diego]] in the late 1970s.{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

It began with a suggestion to start a mural project first brought to the city by David Hernandez, a former Indio city council member, after he visited Chemainus. Very little happened with this concept until 1996, when the Riverside County National Date Festival's executive director [[Bruce Latta]] and commissioned artist [[Bill Weber]] of San Francisco to paint a mural of the [[Taj Mahal]] on the ''Taj Mahal'' (''Garden of Allah'') building at the fairgrounds. At the same time, local businessman Bruce Clark, who was instrumental in promoting Historic [[U.S. Route 99]] (Indio Blvd.) to its former status as the ''Main Street of California''. He maintains a website on Historic Route 99.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indiocaroute99.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140204023132/http://www.indiocaroute99.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/ |archive-date=February 4, 2014 |title=Welcome to Indio, California |access-date=December 23, 2020}}</ref> He brought the mural idea forward again after seeing the success of a similar local program in 29 Palms. When Clark presented the idea to the chamber board of directors, the idea was immediately recognized as something that could help the city's economy by encouraging tourism. Indio now has ten murals about the city on the sides of various buildings in Old Town and on a water reservoir tank on Monroe Street.