Hughes, Charles Beverly  
 
 
 
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Charles Beverly Hughes


A post card dated March 5, 1907 to his brother in West Virginia.
 
 
 

This picture of Charles Beverly Hughes thought to have
been taken circa 1910 in the San Jacinto Mountains at
his hunting camp.
 


 
 
 
 

Hughes homesteaded an area in the San Jacinto Mountains
just above present day Banning, Ca. Post cards from him to his
relatives in West Virginia indicated he was clearing land for a hunting
camp and also working part time for the Forest Service. On Jan 30, 1911,
he filed for a deed on his land near Idyllwild, Ca in an area
known as "Fuller's Mill". He established a hunting camp here and
named it "Kampers Kingdom". This camp was located near
116.73827 degrees W. by 33.81353 degrees N. also near the present
day location of the Pine Wood community, about 2.5 miles off Highway 24
This is one of the old cabins located in the San Jancinto mountains that once
served as a hunting camp owned by Charles Beverly Hughes.  This photo
was taken by the author during a visit to the area in September of 1999.

 

In May of 2006, an old suitcase was discovered by Robert B. Smith of Idyllwild, Ca.  The suitcase had been in the possession of the former curator of the area historical society for 30 or 40 years, since the society closed. 

Upon opening the case, Bob found an old photo with a stamp on the back that reads:
C. Beverly Hughes
Amateur Photographer
Banning, Cal.  

Bob's comments on the photo are as follows:

"The subject area, if the hand-scrawled caption is trustworthy, lies over a ridge to the west of Pinewood, near the site of Col. Milton Hall's 1875 sawmill, where the old loggers' wagon road from the town of San Jacinto to Fuller's Mill began its steep ascent out of Hall Canyon. (Completion in 1910 of the first Banning-to-Idyllwild auto road through here is what inspired Kamper's Kingdom.) The caption must have been added after the creation of "Lake Fullmore [sic]" in 1949. I'm not completely sure, but the meadow pictured may be one located today in the James Reserve, which is the tract Frank Moote and associates named "Evanswood" in 1925."

The photo and the stamp on the reverse side are shown below.

This find proves that Charles Beverly Hughes was, indeed, one of the area's very early photographers.

Thanks to Bob Smith and the other fine folks at the new Idyllwild Area Historical Society for preserving this piece of important family history.