The San Jacintos - The Mountain Country from Banning to Borrego Valley

To modern mankind, the San Jacintos provide mountain homes, recreation and solitude. Strawberry Valley was first to lure vacationers, and by the 1890s was a thriving mountain resort. George Hannahs' Camp Idyllwilde and John and Mary Keen's Keen House catered to hundreds of summer visitors. The first hotel was Idyllwild Sanatorium, built in 1901, destroyed by fire in 1904. The Idyllwild Inn was constructed in 1905 and was long the center of social activities in Strawberry Valley. The subdivision craze hit Idyllwild in the 1920s, and the mountain community steadily grew. Idyllwild became a cultural center after World War II with the founding of the Idullwild School of Music and the Arts (ISOMATA) and Elliott's Desert Sun School. All this and much more is told within the pages of this definitive mountain history. Learn the "real" Ramona story, legends of the mysterious Santa Rosas, efforts to preserve the mountains, the building of the spectacular Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Here is a valuable record of the past, as well as a challenge to the future. John W. Robinson and Bruce D. Risher, 1993, 252 pages, hardcover