Members of the Ecology Club took advantage of the crowds in town Saturday for the Bluegrass Festival and held a bake sale. Shown here from left: Charlene Darisay, Colleen Prowse, Lynn Manning, Cherie Sawyer and Robin Mills. The club is a private group started by some of the students at the Alternative School. Photo ran Oct. 2, 1975. Town Crier Archives

70 years ago - 1950
Plans for state riding and hiking trails received a boost when portions of the local trail system were inspected and found to be favorable.

65 years ago - 1955
Desert Sun School over Saunders Meadow Way reopened with one of the largest enrollments in its history.

60 years ago - 1960
It was proven that desert bighorn sheep inhabited the region surrounding the Banning-Idyllwild highway when a young ram almost blocked highway traffic.

55 years ago - 1965
Formation of the Pine Cove Property Owner’s Association was underway. The rapid growth of Pine Cove required the community to consider planning, zoning, fire protection, property evaluation and water development.

50 years ago - 1970
Eleanor and Jim Johnson decided to waive deed restrictions on the parcel of land purchased by the Idyllwild Fire Protection District in 1967, so that a new fire department and emergency first aid hospital could be erected.

45 years ago - 1975
The fifth Bluegrass Invitational in Idyllwild was a big success. More than 2,000 music fans attended and total gross receipts were estimated to be about $4,700.

40 years ago - 1980
The Idyllwild School bus, carrying 52 students from Hemet High School to Idyllwild, was struck head-on by another vehicle. The driver of the vehicle and her son were taken to the hospital. The school children were transferred to another bus that brought them up the Hill.

35 years ago - 1985
William Lowman, Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA, now Idyllwild Arts Academy) executive director, made the announcement during an address on “The Next Five Years at ISOMATA” that the school would soon become the first private residential high school for the arts in the western United States.

30 years ago - 1990
The Idyllwild School music program was expanding. Eleven advanced instrumentalists began participating in a newly-created jazz band.

25 years ago - 1995
A rock climber who was “free climbing” survived a 200-foot fall and a Marine Corps helicopter ferried him from the wilderness at the base of Tahquitz Peak.

20 years ago - 2000
Students, parents, teachers and dignitaries were on hand as Idyllwild School had its ground-breaking ceremony for the new school addition, 100% funded by Proposition 1-A, the state school facilities program.

15 years ago - 2005
The film “18 minutes” by Alexis Echavarria, late Idyllwild Arts Moving Pictures major, was screened at the 11th-annual Palm Springs International Film Festival of Short Films. It was the first IA film to be so honored.

10 years ago - 2010
Marsha Lytle, former principal and lifelong jazz aficionado, was to be the next jazz fest chair. Planning the 18th-annual Jazz in the Pines had already begun, she said, although the 17th-annual Jazz in the Pines, a fundraising event for student scholarships at Idyllwild Arts, was only a month ago.

5 years ago - 2015
The 2015 Idyllwild Earth Fair was permanently canceled.

1 year ago - 2019
The Idyllwild Renaissance Faire went into its second year moving the venue from the center of town to Camp Emerson Boy Scout Camp. Despite the fog and colder weather, many vendors, volunteers, patrons and a few four-legged animals came out to travel back to a time just as the peasants and nobility would have done during the Renaissance era.