Cathedral City is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. Colloquially known as Cat City, the population was 51,200 at the 2010 census. Located between Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, it is one of the nine cities of the Coachella Valley in Southern California. Cathedral City has the second largest population in the Coachella Valley, after Indio.The city's name derives from "Cathedral Canyon" to the south of the town, so named in 1850 by Colonel Henry Washington because of its rock formations that are reminiscent of a cathedral. The city started as a housing subdivision in 1925, but it was not incorporated until 1981, and it has grown significantly in population since then.