The Restaurant Gastrognome is located near the center of town. The gourmet restaurant did sell-out business on its opening weekend. Photo taken 1973. town crier archives

70 years ago - 1949
With funds raised by the ladies of the Community Presbyterian Church, volunteers were preparing to shingle the roof of the manse.

65 years ago - 1954
Hemet and Idyllwild citizens joined forces to protest a proposal of the U.S. Cement Corp. to construct a $3 million plant in Diamond Valley. The plan called for trucking limestone down the hill from a quarry near the Pines-to-Palms Highway.

60 years ago - 1959
Thomas Mountain proved the most popular deer hunting ground as the season opened with more than 2,000 hunters registered on opening weekend.

55 years ago - 1964
A film called “The Truth About Communism” was presented at the Anza Community Hall.

50 years ago - 1969
The Idyllwild Civil Defense Organization was seeking residents who owned station wagons or pickup trucks that could be used for transporting people or supplies in case of an emergency.

45 years ago - 1974
After 16 years as a “cottage meeting” of the Episcopal Church, St. Hugh’s was accepted as the first diocesan mission of the San Diego diocese.

40 years ago - 1979
The Jim Snell Memorial Ambulance Fund passed the $10,000 goal but the fund drive continued to raise money needed to help pay for a new ambulance for Idyllwild Fire Protection District and outfit it with emergency equipment.

35 years ago - 1984
For the first time in its history, the Idyllwild Elementary School added an afternoon kindergarten class to handle bulging enrollment.

30 years ago - 1989
Hill residents said goodbye to an era when one of Idyllwild’s most famous landmarks, the 180-foot Ponderosa Pine in the middle of South Circle Drive, was cut down due to its succumbing to pine beetle infestation.
25 years ago - 1994
An anti-censorship group, People for the American Way, filed a lawsuit against the Hemet Unified School District (HUSD) to challenge sex education curriculum approved by HUSD’s trustees.

20 years ago - 1999
A $3,000 reward was being offered for information leading to the arrest of the persons responsible for burglarizing local businesses over the month.

15 years ago - 2004
Idyllwild local Herb Jeffries received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to musical performance.

10 years ago - 2009
Bill Whitman of Idyllwild and Lee Piche of Idyllwild and Temecula, who had just returned from “down under,” had tales to tell of bad beginnings and narrow escapes from their competition in the 2009 ITU World Championship Triathlon Grand Finals held in Queensland, Australia.

5 years ago - 2014
As October arrived, the expectation of Santa Ana winds — powerful, hot, dry winds that can turn a spark into a wildfire — rose throughout Southern California and especially on the hill. A collaboration among the U.S. Forest Service, San Diego Gas and Electric, and UCLA produced an index to classify the potential fire threat of these winds.

1 year ago - 2018
“The Cranston Fire did minimal damage to the Pacific Crest Trail,” U.S. Forest Service Natural Resource Specialist Andrew E. Smith said. “Probably about 200 yards of the trail were affected by burn over. The ‘good news’ is there was no structural damage to rock walls, steps, drainage or slopes.”