70 years ago – 1949

The Kemp sawmill was sold to a Big Bear firm. All of its logging equipment was moved off the Hill.

65 years ago – 1954

The Valley Cab Company was advertising a weekly round-trip between Idyllwild and Hemet for $2 each way.

60 years ago – 1959

Dr. Max Krone, then president of the Idyllwild Arts Foundation, received word from LIFE magazine editors that two pages of its Christmas issue would feature activities of the school.

55 years ago – 1964

Hillfolk were advised that making a local telephone call would require dialing seven numbers and that the prefix “659” must be used.

50 years ago – 1969

Taylor’s Lodge in Mountain Center announced that the restaurant would be serving ham and eggs from 2-4 a.m. after the New Year’s Eve music and dancing. 

45 years ago – 1974

About 200 students from Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut planted 5,000 trees in the Soboba burn area. They planned to plant 3,000 more in February.

40 years ago – 1979

The Jim Snell Memorial Ambulance was dedicated at a ceremony at the Idyllwild Fire Station. Locals had raised nearly $12,000 of the $34,149 purchase price.

35 years ago – 1984

The Idyllwild Fire Protection District officials issued an advisory telling residents not to burn their Christmas tree in the fireplace after the holidays because they could be highly explosive and cause a flash fire.  

30 years ago – 1989

No one knew where it came from, but a little potted cedar tree appeared on South Circle Drive where the landmark giant ponderosa pine stood for 335 years before being felled in October. A traffic jam occurred as locals came to see the little tree.

25 years ago – 1994

Larry Donahoo, a paid-on-call firefighter, was named Idyllwild Fire Protection District’s firefighter of the year.

20 years ago – 1999

Mild weather, with the thermometer reaching 80 degrees, was credited for the success of the Audubon Society’s Centennial Christmas Bird Count on the Hill. Spotters counted 105 different species including two birds not previously seen at Lake Hemet and three bald eagles.

15 years ago – 2004

It was announced that the new Village Centre shopping mall was scheduled to open in less than two weeks.  

10 years ago – 2009

Valley Health System District voters finally accepted what the board had urged for several years — sell the district’s public hospitals to pay off the accumulating debt. 

5 years ago – 2014

The Mountain Area Safety Taskforce had been working with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research station to evaluate whether fuel treatments that leave chipped woody material behind are contributing to fire abatement or creating a fire problem. 

1 year ago – 2018

Steve Perez became the new ranger at the Idyllwild Nature Center.