By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
Crestline’s Grand Poobah has been chosen for 2026 – Caleb Morgan, who was sponsored by the Rim of the World Sports Bar.
This is a trifecta for the Sports Bar as last year’s 2025 Poobah was community volunteer Alan Mairs, and the year before, in 2024, it was Sports Bar owner Cliff Herington.
Caleb Morgan has lived in the mountain area for about 15 years, arriving at age 28. He is a member of and helps instruct pilots in techniques and safety procedures in the Crestline Soaring Society. He was introduced by a friend to the mountains, when he came to fly his paraglider. He moved here to have more time to fly and to fly more frequently. He is also a pinball wizard, who enjoys playing the pinball machines in the bar. He knows how to repair them too.
Morgan is an industrial HVAC expert. He commuted for a few years and then moved here. He now tends bar at the Rim of the World Sports Bar, where he has become an expert in flirting with the customers, Wednesday through Sunday evenings.
About five years ago, Morgan became a member of the Billy Holcomb Chapter of E. Clampus Vitas, where he is now their historian. Clampers install historical plaques all over Southern California to honor the long and colorful history of early California. The next plaque will be installed in Boron, in October, honoring the men who operated the 20-mule teams who transported the borox out of the desert, Morgan said.
He is not one to seek attention, but really loves the people in the Crestline community and enjoys making people smile. His membership in the Clampers has made him more aware of the positive things that can be done for a community and he hopes, by being the Grand Poobah, he gets more involved, as he noticed Allen Mairs did last year.
The Grand Poobah contest was created about five years ago by Gunnar Jorgenson, after COVID had canceled most fundraising activities. Those fundraising cancellations created a need for additional money to pay for the fireworks in 2021, so Jorgenson, who owned a business in Crestline, began seeking ways to raise some additional funds.
In Crestline, the honorary mayor contest in the 1970s, 80s and 90s had been a friendly competition between the bars, raising money for the fireworks fund. Each candidate was sponsored by a bar (at that time Crestline has significantly more bars in town than today) and each candidate had a campaign platform of what they planned to do for the community. Each vote was registered by a dollar put into the voting box. Yes, the contest could be bought as its entire purpose was to raise dollars to be blown up in fireworks.
In 1986 Tom Powell Jr. ran on the platform of starting a historical society where the old timers could sit around and tell their stories of how Crestline grew. He won and this year the Rim of the World Historical Society is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
There are many other elements of the community that can be traced to those honorary mayor campaigns. The last honorary mayor was Russ Keller who won with the slogan of “Crestline: The Swingingest Town in America.”
Jorgenson took that honorary mayor idea and the title from the Flintstones and created the Grand Poobah contest, with the hatting ceremony as the high point in the contest and all the funds going to fireworks. His top hats for the Poobah were very elaborate.
Since Jorgenson’s death, the Grand Poobah contest has been run by Jennifer Burger. This year the funds raised went to the programs sponsored for the children served by the Mountain Counseling & Training Center in Valley of Enchantment.
Morgan was honored in the 2026 Jamboree Days parade as he rode on the Clampers float. Herington hopes Morgan gets involved in the community as Mairs did last year, and that next year all the funds raised will again go pay for the fireworks that are shot over Lake Gregory as a part of Jamboree Days. He would also enjoy seeing fundraising contests between the bars like he remembers occurred in the old days, with such contests as log sawing, bed races and T-shirt contests.
“Crestline has a great heritage, and those old days were fun!” reminisced Herington, whose family has been in business in Crestline for three generations.
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