At Family Farmers Pumpkin Patch Festival, Eric Jones and Cathy Genitempo have assembled the kind of place that makes you keep turning to whoever came with you and saying, “Wait. There’s more?” A pony ride. White bison. Cows. Chickens. A little piglet so adorable it seemed almost custom-designed. Gardens bursting with life. A striped tent….
Change can feel especially conspicuous in a smalltown. When an institution has been around longenough to become part of the landscape, even movinga rack or emptying a room can feel like a statement. Andover the past month, there have been plenty of visiblechanges at the Idyllwild Help Center.As a creative consultant for the Help Center,…
Teddy Kim and Christine Pyo did not move to Idyllwild to start a band. They didn’t really start one once they got here, either. They played a song. Then somebody asked them to play for three hours. Then somebody else called. And before long, Vincent’s Choice was everywhere. For two people who never particularly pursued…
In 1941, Max and Beatrice “Bee” Krone came to Idyllwild for Labor Day weekend. They were supposed to be visiting friends. They got here, felt something, and acted on it. Before they even made it back to Los Angeles, they bought a house. Some weekends you barbecue. Some weekends you accidentally change a town forever…....
Eighty years ago, Ernie and Betty Maxwell sat in the attic of their Idyllwild home piecing together a newspaper. The first Town Crier was four pages long, typed and mimeographed, with artwork by Ernie and, in the issues that followed, headlines and bylines drawn by hand. It was a small operation made for a small…
The walls of Casa Querida are filled with evidence of travel. Handwoven textiles, clothing, jewelry and objects arrive from Mexico, Guatemala, Palestine, India and beyond. Mixed among them are photographs of sisters Monica and Christine Martín’s own family—their grandmothers, their childhood, the people and places that came before the shop. It makes sense. Casa Querida…
If you’ve wandered through uptown Idyllwild lately, chances are you’ve already experienced a little of Diana Orr’s influence—even if you didn’t realize it. There’s Wax Apothecary, the botanical candle company she founded over a decade ago. There’s Made in Idyllwild, her Instagram page celebrating local artists and makers. And now there’s Funky Bazaar, the colorful…...
The first “First Friday” felt like a promising experiment. The second answered a different question: Was it a fluke? Judging by the crowds that filled North Circle Friday evening, the answer appears to be “no.” If the inaugural event introduced the idea, the second suggested something more meaningful may already be taking root. People wandered…...
There is a social structure in Idyllwild that operates just beneath the surface. It is not widely recognized, but it is quietly enforced. At the top, of course, is Mayor Max. He is greeted by throngs of adoring fans. Photographed often. Conversations pause for him. Couples gush. Children approach with the kind of reverence usually…...
There’s a stretch of road in Idyllwild that has long served as connective tissue between the town’s two centers of commerce. Not quite downtown, not quite uptown—the portion of North Circle in between. For decades, it’s been a pass-through. A place you move along, not necessarily a place you stop. But lately, something has started…
