By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
This coming President’s Day weekend, Saturday, Feb. 17 and Sunday, Feb. 18, the Mountain History Museum will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., weather permitting, showing off some of their new redesigns of the museum’s displays. Several areas of the museum displays have been moved and other displays have been reimagined and changed out. This weekend will be the first peek at those displays.
One of the new displays this year is two large photographs of early-day Crestline that are now hung over the entrance from the gift store into the museum. These photographs are from many decades ago when Crestline was an active horse-riding community. These large photos formerly hung in the Capre Real Estate office in Crestline but have been donated to the museum.
The two large-framed photographs are of groups of riders on their horses in Crestline. One photo is of a group of horseback riders at the Switzerland Monuments on Lake Drive and the other photo is of several riders on the Lake Gregory horse and hiking trail, both locations are in Crestline. The trail around Lake Gregory was supported by the Club San Moritz riding stables. They would rent riding horses to both club members and tourists. Crestline formerly was a very active horseback riding area.
A very interesting perspective for having both of these black and white photographs prominently on display in the museum is that well-appreciated museum docent, Barbara Carey, who grew up and has lived in Crestline almost all of her life, is featured in both photos. She is the lovely lass in the white shirt on her horse in the center of each photo. These photos were also printed as color post cards and used in advertising brochures, decades ago.
These photos represent a time when there were numerous riding stables for residents and visitors to rent horses to ride the many forest trails, plus many youngsters owned horses in the 1940s through the 70s, often either boarding them at the neighborhood stables or in stables in their backyard. They used the horses for transportation around town and it taught them responsibility.
There were many riding stables in all the mountain communities during those decades. Besides Crestline, there were horses for rent in Blue Jay where the current Blue Jay Burgers is located and was both well- known and very popular in the 50s and 60s. Running Springs and Green Valley Lake also were popular horse-riding areas. Most of the summer camps also had horseback riding as an activity.
The new displays at the museum this season cover many subjects and aspects of mountain history and the first sneak-peek to many of those new displays will be over this President’s Day weekend. During the winter, more of the displays will be adjusted a bit before the summer season is in full swing, as the summer’s central display is still being designed.
This winter, there is also a special winter display showcasing the snow play equipment of the Doheny family who had a house on the shore of Lake Arrowhead and donated their early-day wooden winter toys such as toboggans, skis and snowshoes for close-up display. Mountains Community Hospital was partially built because of the injuries from these old-style toboggans and skis.
Entry to the museum is free. There will be children’s crafts and refreshments offered to those who come to the museum this winter weekend. The gift store will be open and there is free off-street parking. If it is snowing, the museum will be closed since the parking lot would be covered with snow and it could be dangerous for the volunteer docents and visitors.
The Mountain History Museum is located at 27176 Peninsula Drive at the corner of Rhine Road in Lake Arrowhead. If the weather is poor, verify that the museum is open by calling (909) 744-8625.
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