The Idyllwild Area Historical Society held their annual meeting on Sunday afternoon at Silver Pines Lodge. The speaker this year was Steve Lech, park planner for Riverside County and local historian, who gave a slide show presentation and lecture on the history of the Pines to Palms highway.

El Niño conditions or patterns, which have recently become daily conversation on the Hill, are not defined by the amount of precipitation. Rather, the National Weather Service defines them as higher-than-normal sea-surface temperatures along the equator from the coast of South America to the central Pacific Ocean.

Only one traffic collision occurred on hill roads over the last week, Officer Darren Meyer of the California Highway Patrol reports. At 7:20 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 9, two vehicles collided on Highway 243 about one-quarter mile south of Saunders Meadow Road. A black 2006 Honda Accord, driven by Jacob Fetchko, 25 of San Jacinto,…