Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Blythe, CA

Blythe is a desert city in eastern Riverside County in the Palo Verde Valley on the Colorado River, about 224 miles east of Los Angeles and 150 miles west of Phoenix.

Blythe was named for San Francisco financier Thomas Henry Blythe, who secured primary water rights to the Colorado River in 1877 and financed the irrigation project that made farming the valley possible.

Blythe was incorporated on July 21, 1916, the same summer the California Southern Railroad reached the town and triggered a farming boom in cotton and cottonseed.

Blythe counted 18,317 residents at the 2020 census, though winter "snowbird" visitors swell the population seasonally.

Blythe has only about 4,100 households for its 18,000-plus residents, with an average of 2.79 people per household — a gap explained in part by residents counted in group quarters.

The Blythe Intaglios, giant prehistoric geoglyphs etched into the desert pavement by Native Americans, lie in the Sonoran Desert just northwest of the city.

The first automobile bridge across the Colorado River between Blythe and Ehrenberg, Arizona, opened in 1928, replacing a cable ferry.

The Palo Verde Valley around Blythe holds more than 40,000 acres of prime farmland growing cotton, alfalfa, melons, lettuce, broccoli and onions under Colorado River irrigation.

Palo Verde College, Blythe's community college, was founded on September 15, 1947, on the former Morton Air Academy site and opened with just 17 students.

Blythe sits at about 248 feet of elevation in the Colorado Desert, with year-round sunshine and mild winters that draw retirees and river recreationists.