Past Tense: June 10, 2021

70 years ago – 1951
The first services were held in the new Idyllwild Community Presbyterian Church.

65 years ago – 1956
The Idyllwild County Water District took over the Idyllwild Water Company. Meanwhile, the election of the proposed Pine Cove County Water District was set by county supervisors.

60 years ago – 1961
Eleanor Park, also known as the Village Park, was undergoing a facelift with the addition of a fountain, a gift of the local business community and the Izaak Walton League.

55 years ago – 1966
A public hearing was scheduled on Idyllwild County Water District’s plan to discharge effluent into Strawberry Creek.

50 years ago – 1971
County supervisors voted to rezone the 2,200-acre Lake Pine Meadows tract in Garner Valley. Hillside land would have a 20-acre minimum lot size and the valley floor would have a 5-acre minimum lot size. The developers, Great American Land Company, had intended to cut up the land into 3,911 lots.

45 years ago – 1976
Among the world-class faculty at ISOMATA’s (now Idyllwild Arts) Summer Program were Ray Bradbury, teaching creative writing, and Bella Lewitzky, teaching modern dance.

40 years ago – 1981
Hill kids were busy with graduation activities: Graduating from high school were 28 from Hemet High School and seven from the Desert Sun School. Idyllwild Elementary School promoted 38 seventh graders (the school now has an eighth grade).

35 years ago – 1986
The Mountain chapter of the Sierra Club made a public objection to the California Fish and Game Commission’s recent decision to allow, for the first time in 20 years, the hunting of tree squirrels.
30 years ago – 1991
Idyllwild and Pine Cove got a new zip code — 92549.

25 years ago – 1996
A capacity crowd of more than 600 people gathered at the new Cahuilla Creek Restaurant and Casino in Anza to watch the televised championship boxing match billed as “the fight of the century” between Julio Cesar Chavez and challenger Oscar De Laý Hoya.

20 years ago – 2001
All high-sugar drinks as well as snack foods having more than 15 grams of fat per serving were banned for sale or consumption during the school day at Hemet Unified School District campuses.
15 years ago – 2006
A group of local residents was making plans to open Idyllwild’s first Farmers’ Market in July.

10 years ago – 2011
The Riverside County sheriff warned that mental and health care for county jail inmates was in crisis. A grand jury report found deficiencies in the county’s provision of mental and emergency health services. Supervisors directed the Department of Mental Health Detention Services to prepare a draft reponse to the grand jury’s findings, giving many recommendations to aid the issue, within a month.

5 years ago – 2016
Mary Lehman went to the Greek island of Lesbos, just off the Turkish coast. She had read of the developing emergency on Lesbos and went to lend her skills as a volunteer emergency medical technician to the escalating refugee crisis in Europe.

1 year ago – 2020
The newspaper reached out to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) after seeing a Facebook post that announced Mountain Center resident Lydia “Dia” Abrams was reported missing.