“It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”
– Ansel Adams
“The view from San Jacinto is the most sublime spectacle to be found anywhere on this earth!”
- John Muir, Philosopher and Naturalist
Ascending the hills of the San Jacintos, it’s hard to imagine that this same land was once the bottom of a vast ocean whose shores reached present-day Tucson and Phoenix. After a tumultuous geographic and human history, what has emerged now is one of the most peaceful, magical and spectacular places on earth. It’s the history that made it that way.
Once a fertile pristine valley filled with ferns, strawberries and Lemon Lilies, this isolated geography has been home to the Cahuilla tribe of Indians for thousands of years. After losing more than 80% of their population to smallpox brought by European settlers, the tribe was relegated to 20,000 acres near Anza in 1875, leaving a vast ancient wilderness ripe for deforestation. Over the next few decades, lumber mills cleared a vast forest of cedar and pine to feed a hungry citrus industry at the base of the mountain and city of Angels following a gold rush that was busting at the seams.
Once the mountains were cleared of usable lumber and President Grover Cleveland declared the very first protected wilderness, the town settlers turned to what we now affectionately call “glamping” as a way of life. Intent on making “Mile High Idyllwild” the “Alps of Southern California,” this unincorporated community has seen it’s share of real estate developers, artists and Hollywood stars over the last 100 years.
Escape a moment of your modern world with Stephen to explore a walking historical tour of the village of Idyllwild while savoring and sampling some favorites from our local artisans.