Past Tense: June 4, 2015

65 years ago – 1950
Ernie Maxwell reported that he had to get his long johns back out as June started with snow and cold weather.

60 years ago – 1955
Dr. Marion Michael Null had been as busy as a bird dog since Davy Crockett became the man of the hour. He was the author of “The Forgotten Pioneer,” an authentic biography of Davy published in 1954.

55 years ago – 1960
Tahquitz Lake Golf Club opened at Dutch Flat. About 200 golfers helped initiate the nine-hole course in a blind bogey tournament.

50 years ago – 1965
All campgrounds were filled and some visitors slept beside roads as a record crowd enjoyed Memorial Day on the Hill.

45 years ago – 1970
A Tahquitz Valley hiker became ill and was airlifted to a Hemet hospital after eating the leaves of corn lily, or false hellebore, a poisonous plant often mistaken for skunk cabbage.

40 years ago – 1975
The Desert Sun School gave a summer home to two teens who had recently escaped Saigon on a military flight.

35 years ago – 1980
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for Idyllwild’s new downtown office facility. Then dubbed “the Village Center Building,” it is now known as “the Courtyard Building.”

30 years ago – 1985
The Idyllwild Fire Protection District announced that Fire Chief Bud Hunt would retire in August and interviews were being conducted for a new chief. Hunt started work with the local fire department as a volunteer in 1955.

25 years ago – 1990
Representatives of the Pine Cove Property Owners Association were to recommend that the Hill Municipal Advisory Council appoint a committee to examine limiting the density of future development projects.

20 years ago – 1995
Plans were being completed for the upcoming sixth-annual Idyllwild Lions Club Timber Festival.

15 years ago – 2000
Veteran actor Orson Bean was the featured speaker at the Idyllwild Arts Academy’s graduation ceremony.

10 years ago – 2005
The Idyllwild Community Recreation Council was preparing to make its recreation management proposal to the Chamber of Commerce.

5 years ago – 2010
The San Jacinto Ranger District was proposing to close unsafe mine shafts, and remove trash and vandalized camper shells from the Gold Shot Mine site. It was filed on by Carl and Albert Christiansen in 1918.

1 year ago – 2014
The Idyllwild Historic Preservation District Review Board met with a number of property owners and renters whose properties fall within district boundaries to explain the district and the renovation permitting process.