Past Tense: November 17, 2016
File photo
60 years ago – 1956
Some Banning youngsters took a one-day outdoor education course at the Arts Foundation. One of them later wrote the instructor (Emax), “I enjoyed hiking with you. Your job was to make us hungry and you sure did it.”
55 years ago – 1961
Residents were grumbling as they received their tax bills. The county rate rose from $1.86 to $2.07 per $100 of assessed valuation.
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Two young men were injured, one seriously, in a fall while descending Tahquitz Rock. Besides that, their companion rolled his car while racing from Humber Park to summon aid.
50 years ago – 1966
On a snowy election day, Idyllwild and Pine Cove voted overwhelmingly Republican. Reagan received 565 votes in four precincts against 156 for Brown.
45 years ago – 1971
Markers went up on Highway 74 designating it a State Scenic Highway, the longest stretch of Scenic Highway in Southern California.
40 years ago – 1976
Trailfinders alumni, including a sprinkling of celebrities, attended a ground breaking at the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve near Lake Fulmor. A 2,400-square-foot multipurpose lodge was to be built on the property.
35 years ago – 1981
Hunters spied the wreckage of an airplane at the 3,500-foot level on Rouse Hill. It turned out to be a training plane lost during World War II when Hemet-Ryan Field was an Air Corps training site.
25 years ago – 1991
The Coordinated Resource Management and Planning group decided at its monthly meeting to coordinate the fire-hazard abatement programs on the Hill so they were uniformly interpreted.
20 years ago – 1996
Thirty-five-year-old Twila Wellman won third place in a world mountain bike championship in Australia.
10 years ago – 2006
Habitat for Humanity began helping dozens of local volunteers remodel and refurbish the home of Maria Loutzenhiser, whose husband Mark, a Forest Service engine captain, died in the Esperanza Fire.
5 years ago – 2011
Riverside County advanced Idyllwild Fire Protection District $450,000 on its December and January property tax receipts.
1 year ago – 2015
The Town Hall building had been closed for a duration yet to be determined, according to Kyla Brown, parks and recreation bureau chief for the Riverside County Regional Parks and Open-space District, although she hoped it would be only a week. Inspectors found asbestos during a remodel.
