When Lake Cahuilla filled, it may have encouraged Quechan people to migrate to the area. This migration is considered to be a possible source for the spread of agriculture to the Peninsular Ranges. When Lake Cahuilla dried out after 1500 AD, these people would have migrated back south and west, a move possibly recorded in the oral traditions of the Quechan people and of people they mixed with. Legends have it that lost ships, sometimes described as pirate ships or galleons, sailed Lake Cahuilla and are now buried somewhere in the Colorado Desert.