When snow is as scarce as it’s been for the past 20 months, long-time Hill residents begin to pine for those old-time storms, “when we had real snow here.” Never mind that Idyllwild has never had enough snow to support even a minimal ski resort. And there have been recurring droughts throughout history, such as…
Amid a profusion of religious ceremony during the Christmas season, it may come as a surprise that throughout its first half-century, Idyllwild had not a single church. There was simply no population base to support a church organization. Despite its 1920s boom, the village remained a summer colony. The 1930 census lists barely three dozen…
Between 1875 and 1900 loggers and sawmills were the dominant human activity in the San Jacinto Mountains. They appeared first on Indian Creek in Hall Canyon, now home to Lake Fulmor and the James Reserve, then along Fuller Mill and Strawberry creeks. Once steam engines replaced water wheels, logging camps spread into the forest beyond…
The Creekstone Inn has dominated the four-way stop called Fern Valley Corners since 1947; but its current identity, as Chris Singer’s elegant, 20-year-old tourist lodging, is a recent development. Instead, for 47 years Hill dwellers associated the building strictly with food. In 1946, as the country recovered from World War II, Michael and Dorothy Michelsen…
Saunders Meadow has supported educational programs for the past 70 years, but its varied history reaches back far earlier than the 1940s. Thanks in part to recent research by my Idyllwild Area Historical Society colleague, Dr. Robert Reyes, a more complete story is emerging. Space will allow me to sketch only a general outline….
For nearly a century teaching and learning have been major activities in and around Idyllwild. Among the schools and camps responsible, one of the most interesting was the Desert Sun School, which for 44 years occupied the campus that now houses Astrocamp. “Desert Sun” seems an odd name for an institution nestled in a mountain…
“O, sunset land! O, sunset land! As on thy highest mount I stand, I look away across the plain, And wonder will it ever rain.” Thus did J.P. Baumgartner, editorializing in the Riverside Daily Press in 1899, paraphrase a familiar gospel hymn. Southern California was suffering through a three-year drought. Only three storage reservoirs existed…
The recent power outages due to high winds or scheduled maintenance should remind us, even today, not to take the centralized electrical grid for granted. Actually, until 1923, Idyllwild had no access to it at all, which was hardly a fatal drawback. My family vacationed comfortably at our cabin without electricity for 75 years until…
The post office has long been a favorite spot for locals to see friends, spread information and gossip, and hold impromptu conferences. A 1922 photo shows 10 people and a dog clustered out front next to a huge table and chairs made of granite chunks and log sections. A 1940s photo shows a waiting line…
Like a growing number of Hill residents, I’ve been spending more time lately at our public library. Its move to Strawberry Plaza in 2012 was truly a return to its roots at the heart of the community. In 1920, Claudius Lee Emerson made a library an integral part of his plan to develop a family-friendly…
