Before the Southern Pacific Railroad came there was no town of Indio; the area had only a few inhabitants. Originally known as Indian Wells, Indio was the terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroad for about a year after the railhead reached it in May, 1876. For years after this it was the crew change point for Southern Pacific trains running between Los Angeles and Yuma, Arizona.
Indio was chosen as a railroad division point because it was the halfway point between LA and Yuma, where the Southern Pacific needed facilities to service locomotives. Indio also had the required water from deep wells to supply the steam locomotives. At Indio the SP established a freight yard, depot, engine service facilities, and a wye for turning locomotives and equipment.
The town itself was laid out in 1894 by A.G. Tingman, a Southern Pacific Railroad construction boss. Tingman was also Indio's first storekeeper and postmaster. Millionaire land owner and railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington of Los Angeles jointly funded the town site. Tingman Avenue – once downtown Indio's main street – was named in Tingman’s honor.
Today, the Southern Pacific's successor, the Union Pacific Railroad, maintains the original rail corridor as the main transcontinental line between Los Angeles and New Orleans, Louisiana, but the large train switching yard that brought Indio growth over the years is gone, moved to Colton some years ago.
The original 1876 railroad station, a two-story wooden structure unique to the Southern Pacific, burned to the ground in 1966. Some of the station's artifacts were salvaged, and can be viewed at the Coachella Valley Historic Museum and Cultural Center in downtown Indio. The Southern Pacific rail depot is east of Jackson Street on 45th Avenue, but the railroad's regional headquarters moved to Colton near San Bernardino, California in 1990.