Biohazard Cleanup Near North Cabazon Cabazon, CA

Cabazon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Riverside County, set in the San Gorgonio Pass along Interstate 10 between Los Angeles and Palm Springs, and the Pacific Crest Trail passes through it.

Cabazon began in the 1870s as a Southern Pacific Railroad station first named Jacinto, then renamed Cabezone after a nearby Cahuilla Indian rancheria whose chief the Spanish had nicknamed for his large head - 'cabazon' implies big-headed in Spanish.

Cabazon incorporated as a city on November 1, 1955, largely so it could host cardrooms, but the city was so unstable that 18 police chiefs cycled through in its first seven years, and voters chose to disincorporate by a 192-to-131 vote in 1971, dissolving the city in 1972.

Cabazon had a population of 2,629 in the 2020 census, living in 834 households with an average size of 3.11 people, and for the first time a majority of residents, about 53%, identified as Hispanic or Latino.

Cabazon is world-famous for the Cabazon Dinosaurs: Dinny, a 150-ton building shaped like a Brontosaurus begun in 1964 and finished in 1975, and Mr. Rex, a 100-ton Tyrannosaurus rex built in 1981, both sculpted by Claude Bell to lure customers to his Wheel Inn Cafe.

The Cabazon Dinosaurs became pop-culture icons after appearing in the 1985 film Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and developers bought them from the Bell family in 2005 for $1.2 million.

Cabazon is a major outlet-shopping stop, home to both the Desert Hills Premium Outlets and the Cabazon Outlets along Interstate 10.

The Morongo Band of Mission Indians' Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa rises over Cabazon with a 27-story hotel tower that dominates the San Gorgonio Pass, and it is one of the largest Native American casinos in the United States.

Cabazon has a hot desert climate with only about 6.4 inches of rain a year, despite sitting at an elevation of 1,834 feet in the pass.

The arson-set Esperanza Fire started near Cabazon in late October 2006, burning more than 40,000 acres over five days and killing five firefighters; State Route 243 was renamed the Esperanza Firefighters Memorial Highway in their honor.