Robert Smith
Before Our Time: Lakes on the Hill …
The absence of a local lake has helped shape Idyllwild’s lasting character, a fact for which many Hill residents are grateful. But as with...
Before Our Time: The Chef in the Forest …
A Minnesota reader, fondly recalling childhood vacations here, recently sparked my curiosity about one of Idyllwild’s more outlandish characters. In January 1966, Warren Jacober...
Before Our Time: Photographers record history …
Fortunately for present and future Idyllwild residents, much of the Hill’s history is preserved in photographs.
We’ve seen more than our share of outstanding...
It takes a village … and 30 years of effort
The Idyllwild Community Center property and its history ...
Before Our Time: Pines to Palms before the highway …
As winter wears on, Hill residents occasionally escape the cold with a jaunt down California Scenic Highway 74 to the desert. Driving it today,...
Before Our Time: The endless discoveries of history …
Like peeling an onion, the work of reconstructing history seems never to end. New tidbits appear serendipitously and constantly.
Let me close the year...
Before Our Time: Idyllwild’s early winters …
The only sustained effort to create a ski resort here in Strawberry Valley began immediately after World War II. In 1946, Jules Berkeley of...
Before Our Time: What we do …
I’m sometimes asked what we do at the Idyllwild Area Historical Society, so let me share an example.
One of the minor charms of living...
Before Our Time: Sequoias, settle in here …
A grove of giant sequoias in the San Jacinto Mountains? Yes indeed!
One sultry day this summer, I was hiking with friends up one of...
Before Our Time: Two early and longtime Idyllwild fore-fathers …
Frank Strong and George Dickinson get relatively little attention as pioneer developers in Strawberry Valley.
Unlike George Hannahs, Walter Lindley or Claudius Lee Emerson, they...