Rain didn’t dampen the spirits of Mike Bailey and Bruce Adams in early March 1978 as they inspected the site that rancher Jack Garner donated for a secondary school on the Hill. Bailey and Adams were this area’s representatives on the school board and had been in the forefront of the effort to persuade the school district to provide a school for junior and senior high students from Idyllwild and Anza. A curriculum study for the new school was already underway. file photo/ray smart

70 years ago - 1949
A crew of 70 RKO people descended on the Idyllwild Inn. They were to shoot location scenes for a Tim Holt western. Along with the troupe came Holt’s favorite palomino, Lightning.

65 years ago - 1954
The biggest angling crowd on record came to the mountain for the opening of fishing season. More than 2,500 anglers registered at Lake Hemet, more than 1,400 were tallied on streams along the Banning highway, and anglers stood elbow-to-elbow around Lake Fulmor.

60 years ago - 1959
With the forest unusually dry, Forest Service lookouts headed for their posts. Kit Robertson returned to Red Mountain, Ray Reading was to man Ranger Peak Lookout and Jess Southwell was headed for Tahquitz Peak.

55 years ago - 1964
The American Legion Post 800 offered a $10 prize for anyone who could “ride the bucking donkey” for 10 seconds at its Wild Idle Days held at the Idyllwild Stables Arena.

50 years ago - 1969
The Pinecraft Village Smorgasbord restaurant offered an all-you-can-eat dinner for $2.75.

45 years ago - 1974
Though the weather was chilly and wet, the two-day, second-annual Idyllwild Bluegrass Invitational drew a capacity crowd at Town Hall.

40 years ago - 1979
Students and teachers at Desert Sun School returned home from Chrysalis. Held yearly, the special study program gave students the opportunity to learn through their experiences in such places as Africa, England, Mexico and France.

35 years ago - 1984
It was long overdue and some Hill residents had given up hope, but the first measurable snowfall of the season fell on the Hill on April 27.

30 years ago - 1989
Mac Taylor, founder of Taylor’s Lodge, a popular Hill restaurant since 1948, died just a month after the business closed.

25 years ago - 1994
About 90 teenagers attended a dance at the Idyllwild-Pine Cove Community Center sponsored by the Idyllwild Lions Club, the Rotary and the Soroptimists.

20 years ago - 1999
County Supervisor Jim Venable and his staff attended a meeting of the Hill Municipal Advisory Council to discuss getting public bus service on the Hill. “We’ll get bus service up here,” said Venable.

15 years ago - 2004
Two public demonstrations occurred in one week by people protesting the Forest Service decision to spray carbaryl to protect trees from the bark beetle.

10 years ago - 2009
Sometime in the coming summer, the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce hoped to have a new work of art in place at the old monument site, to replace the bowed-headed, weakened-winged, woodpecker-attacked eagle cadaver that remained.

5 years ago - 2014
American Legion Post 800 played host to five service veterans hiking the Pacific Crest Trail as part of Warrior Hike “Walk Off the War,” a wilderness recreational therapy program designed to help vets transition from combat to civilian life.

1 year ago - 2018
Ralph Hoetger was selected as the newest Idyllwild Fire Protection District commissioner.