Built in 1963. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1901.
From the record
“The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Mountain Station, also known as Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Alpine Station, is a historic building located in Mount San Jacinto State Park near Idyllwild, California. The building is a fine example of a commercial building designed by Palm Springs architect E.”
Wikipedia article Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Mountain Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 90 National Register listings published here for Riverside County · listed in 2016 · category: Building · built in 1963, by Emerson Stewart Williams.
Also known as. Architecture of E. Stewart Williams MPS
Census division. Idyllwild
When was it built? 1963
Architect. Emerson Stewart Williams
National Register reference number. 16000889 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Then and now
1901 to 1996
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
95 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
19011996
Fires near this property
131 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 131 fires within 5 miles of Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Mountain Station
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 14,212 acres in total. 54 started naturally. 8 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Natural
54
Recreation and ceremony
30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
16
Equipment and vehicle use
11
Arson/incendiarism
8
Debris and open burning
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Smoking
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Mountain Station: 3 occurrences, 1 prospect.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Idyllwild, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1999 and 2022: 10 flash flood, 5 heavy rain, 3 flood, 1 wildfire.
The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A severe thunderstorm developed over the Fern Valley area and significantly interfered with an ongoing search and rescue operation involving two injured climbers at Suicide Rock. Several eyewitness accounts from climbers on Suicide and Tahquitz Rocks, as well as from people involved in the ongoing SAR mission, describe hailstones ranging in size from marbles to walnuts. A rescue helicopter was forced to abort a rescue attempt of the climbers and make an emergency landing after the thunderstorm moved into the area. One of the injured climbers suffered additional contusions from the hail while another person received cuts. Please note that the severe thunderstorm did not move into the area until nearly two hours after the initial (non-weather related) rock climbing accident.
A severe thunderstorm east of Idyllwild produced flash flooding in a line from Suicide and Tahquitz Rocks to the Fern Valley area. A search and rescue mission involving two injured rock climbers was ongoing prior to the storm. Several people involved in the SAR mission describe significant runoff and flash flooding 3 feet deep carrying rocks and debris down the mountain. Many roads in Fern Valley were littered with large rocks and mud.
Department of Highways reported flooding at SR-74 E and Cranston Ranger Station at mile marker 49. Water covering the road, originating from the Fairview Fire burn scar. Mesonet station CNSC1 Cranston reported 1.03 inch of heavy rain within two hours.
More than 200 people were stranded at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway as heavy rain in the San Jacinto Mountains and State Park caused impassible mudflows along the exit road from the valley station. Operations of Palm Springs said mud began flowing down east of the station onto the road. The flow appeared to be mostly mud, and not debris. Rainfall of 1.99 inches was measured at the Mt San Jacinto Peak RAWS site.
Flooding reported along Highway 243 in Pine Cove near Idyllwild, with small gravel and mud flows noted. Small hail (0.25 inch in diameter) was also reported.
California Highway Patrol reported a debris flow on Highway 74 at McCall Park Road. The water cleared out soon after and left behind debris on the road...such as rocks and sticks. The nearby Keenwild mesonet recorded 0.47 inches of rain during this time.
Thunderstorms accompanied by heavy downpours caused street flooding in Idyllwild and San Jacinto. Also several motor vehicle accidents on Highway 79, between Beaumont and San Jacinto, were attributed to heavy rain.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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