IDYLWILD Area Historical Society

Idyllwild was once the summer home for bands of Cahuilla Indians, who escaped the heat of lower elevations to hunt game and to gather acorns and other plants. A Cahuilla legend recounts how tribesmen chanted over the body of their fallen chieftain Tahquitz, or Takwus, who had been possessed by an evil spirit and killed his sweetheart. Suddenly his body began to glow like fire, and he rose and settled on Idyllwild's Tahquitz Rock. According to the legend, Tahquitz is trapped beneath the rock with a rattlesnake and a condor for company, and when the mountain shakes and trembles, it is not an earthquake, but Tahquitz up to his evil tricks on Lily Rock.

www.idyllwildhistory.org