Past Tense: December 24, 2015
65 years ago – 1950
Two men, Mike Dunn and Bill Bratton, set a record for the hike from Idyllwild to Palm Springs, reaching the Richfield Station in 10-1/2 hours.
60 years ago – 1955
Ted Belden, a local furniture manufacturer, led property owners in the mountain resort communities to decide that zoning was not desired. A hand vote was used to record the decision.
55 years ago – 1960
Crowding at the elementary school resulted in moving the kindergarten class across the street to Idyllwild Pines Camp.
50 years ago – 1965
More snow fell on the Hill, giving the San Jacinto Mountains a white Christmas.
45 years ago – 1970
The integration of the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts into the School of Performing Arts, University of Southern California, was announced.
40 years ago – 1975
A parade and a celebration in Anza recreated the historic march of Col. Juan Bautista de Anza from Mexico to San Francisco 200 years previously.
35 years ago – 1980
A working committee of community members formed to continue a fundraising drive for the Robert E. Holmes Bowl on the USC-Idyllwild campus. Because of the stirring performances of Handel’s “Messiah,” there was renewed interest in completing the ampitheater.
30 years ago – 1985
Bird counting as part of the 19th-annual Audubon Society Bird Count was “the best it had been in 19 years,” said one couple.
25 years ago – 1990
A Russian violinist from Idyllwild Arts Academy starred in the ninth-annual “Christmas in Washington,” a celebration hosted by President Bush and his wife, Laura.
20 years ago – 1995
As county park cuts hit the Hill, naturalist Michele Cardineaux received word that her position at the Idyllwild Nature Center was terminated, part of $368,000 in budget cuts the county park division needed to make.
15 years ago – 2000
The U.S. Forest Service received the good news that its funding was being increased to a level it hadn’t seen in over 20 years.
10 years ago – 2005
The Idyllwild Community Recreation Council rejected the Chamber of Commerce’s last offer to join forces, reasoning that ICRC could better serve the community by remaining independent.
5 years ago – 2010
In an all-important pre-Christmas sales week for local merchants, five days of continuous rain began to dampen local sales.
1 year ago – 2014
The Mountain Area Safety Taskforce had been working with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research to evaluate whether fuels treatments that leave chipped woody material behind are contributing to fire abatement or creating a fire problem.
