The last couple of weeks have been especially busy for your Historical Society. We ended April with a great speaker, Ingrid P. Wicken who gave us all a history lesson on Southern California Skiing. The next weekend was Rebuilding Together Day (formerly Christmas in April), Saturday April 26th, when close to 90 people showed up to paint and clean-up the firehouse museum property on Peninsula Drive. But before we could even paint, we had to prep the building and this was accomplished by three individuals that I would like to acknowledge, Rich Wildhaber Phil Wolloch and Don Bone who practically did the whole job, with a little help from other society members. I would also like to mention and commend Roy French (Roy’s Painting in Running Springs) and his crew who scaled 60 foot ladders to paint the entire building along with the trim.

A special thanks to Jim Huff and Phil Wolloch for personally eliminating 90% of the overgrown trees on the lot. They were definitely a fire hazard. Many other members came that Saturday, and by the combined effort of all those members and friends, we accomplished a near miracle. The firehouse can now be properly call “our museum.”

Also the county grant was implemented that week and we now have a beautiful new roof to go with the paint job. With the efforts of so many (probably close to 800 man-hours), we are at least a year ahead of schedule for our opening. The new date we are aiming for is June 1st, 2009!

The rest of the summer is going to be hectic, but we love this time of year as it is fund-raising time. This past weekend was the Running Springs Home Tour and we met a lot of old members there as well as adding to our roster. We also made some money by the sale of books and pictures.

Our next function will be the Speaker’s Series on Sunday, May 18th, at Firehouse #91, just at the entrance to the Lake Arrowhead Village, across from 7/11 store, at 2:00 PM. We will be featuring Rick Ray, Hollywood publicist and pilot, who will entertain us with stories from his past.

Quickly following up, the next event will be the Lake Arrowhead Antique Boat Show on Saturday, June 7th at the Lake Arrowhead Village; the Lake Arrowhead Rotary Art and Wine function in Tavern Bay on June 21st and 22nd; a field trip to the Big Bear Museum on Sunday, June 22nd, and our annual Fourth of July Picnic in Crestline at the San Moritz Lodge ball field. If you can help with any of these events, please call Lee at 337-5850 or Jim at 338-0225.