The new year brought one barely noticeable change to the Hill. Officially, the San Jacinto Mountain Area Water Study Agency terminated. It passed quietly and without fanfare, a contrast with its notoriety and presence during its infancy in the 1980s and more recently in the early 2000s. The Agency, as it was initially called, was…

How it occurred is controversial Many locals know it as Lily Rock, but climbers prefer to call it Tahquitz Rock. It’s one of the more famous climbing sites in California and is where the Yosemite Decimal System for rating the degree of difficulty of rock climbs reportedly was first developed back in the 1950s. Tahquitz…

During Thanksgiving week, Hill residents must have been extremely grateful for their life and friends here. The reward was significant rain and the first snowfall of the 2016-17 winter season. The U.S. Forest Service’s Keenwild Ranger Station recorded 1.2 inches of rain from Saturday through Sunday evening. In Pine Cove, 1.76 inches of rain fell…

65 years ago – 1949 Twelve students were in the seventh-grade graduating class at Idyllwild School. Their teacher was Keith Sanberg.   60 years ago – 1954 Searchers were relieved when Jimmy Hartman, 3-1/2 years old, was found unharmed but cramped inside an abandoned ice box. He had been missing for eight hours.   55…