The new kindergarten and first-grade room at Idyllwild School was put in use in February 1960 before all the fixtures wre added. The new room featured heated floors, improved lighting and plenty of room for teacher Barbah Lea Johnson to carry on varied classroom activities. file photo

50 years ago – 1967

County supervisors approved a request from the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce for the relocation of butane space heaters at Town Hall.

45 years ago – 1972

Mrs. Iva Lee Bowen of Idyllwild, was killed in a head-on collision with a California Highway Patrol car on Lamb’s Canyon Road between Beaumont and Palm Springs.

40 years ago – 1977

Property in the Idyll-wild area was reappraised, as the county strived to develop a three-year appraisal cycle.

35 years ago – 1982

The annual 5/10k Alpine Run, which was sponsored by the Idyllwild Rotary Club, went by swimmingly.

20 years ago – 1997

Samuel Nelson Nesbitt, a Stone Creek man charged with operating a large-scale meth lab, had his hearing with Judge Albert Wojcik postponed.

15 years ago – 2002

The California Court of Appeals ruled that Pine Cove murder suspect Kacee Monroe, 17, would be prosecuted as an adult for the murder of 16-year-old Austin Ross (also of Pine Cove).

10 years ago – 2007 

Idyllwild Arts Summer Program instructor Natasha Tretheway won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her work “Native Guard.”

5 years ago – 2012 

Gary Busher, local coordinator for the Second Harvest Food Bank distribution, reported an increase in commodity applicants. He said the group distributed 300 boxes to more than 500 recipients.

1 year ago – 2016 

Mary Morse, Idyllwild’s Spirit Mountain Retreat executive director and Hemet’s Human Relations Council president, was the 2016 Civil Rights Champion for Justice, an annual honor bestowed by the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County Inc.