Before Our Time: The endless discoveries of history …
Like peeling an onion, the work of reconstructing history seems never to end. New tidbits appear serendipitously and constantly.
Let me close the year...
Before Our Time: Idyllwild’s early winters …
The only sustained effort to create a ski resort here in Strawberry Valley began immediately after World War II. In 1946, Jules Berkeley of...
Before Our Time: What we do …
I’m sometimes asked what we do at the Idyllwild Area Historical Society, so let me share an example.
One of the minor charms of living...
Before Our Time: Sequoias, settle in here …
A grove of giant sequoias in the San Jacinto Mountains? Yes indeed!
One sultry day this summer, I was hiking with friends up one of...
Before Our Time: Two early and longtime Idyllwild fore-fathers …
Frank Strong and George Dickinson get relatively little attention as pioneer developers in Strawberry Valley.
Unlike George Hannahs, Walter Lindley or Claudius Lee Emerson, they...
Before Our Time: Idyllwild’s “Name game” …
An old tradition my forebears brought from Britain is the habit of bestowing names on their homes. It reached Idyllwild in the 1920s to...
Before Our Time: Idyllwild’s SMASH! …
With playground construction underway at our future community center, it’s appropriate to recall the Wright family compound that occupied the site for more than...
Before Our Time: Betty Maxwell …
The attention Idyllwild lavished on Ernie Maxwell during his centennial last year was well deserved. But it left his wife, Betty, the other half...
Before Our Time: Rustic before Silver Pines …
I first got acquainted with the Silver Pines Lodge as an Idyllwild newcomer, when I learned about artifacts unearthed there by two Idyllwild School...
Before Our Time: Fore! BeFore! …
Brendan Steele’s recent success has made golf newsworthy in Idyllwild once again. News media around the country love to highlight the odd fact that...