Tears of Suicide Rock

In Idyllwild, there is a precipitous rock that looms over the northern part of the community that we always referred to as 'Lilly Rock' but is better known as Suicide Rock. As a kid my family owned the stables in town and most of the land north of the community, even the bowling alley was owned by Uncle. Today those stables are long gone, replaced by grocery stores and condos.

But I degrees, lets get back to Lilly Rock. I was told when I was about 10 the story of Lilly Rock. The reason was because I notched that large drops of water came off the rock long after the snow had melted. So I asked my relatives, who were all Indians, where the water was coming from. At the time they lived right at the base of Lilly Rock, and you could hear the water drops hit the top of the trailer all night long. So here is the True story of Suicide Rock or as we always knew it, Lilly Rock.

It seems that a Indian Princess fell in love with a lowly brave from another tribe who lived over by Thomas Mt. Today's, Thomas Mt Indian Reservation and where Lake Hemet is located. Anyway, her father the Main chief for all the tribes that lived around Idyllwild, Thomas Mt, and Anza, disapproved of the relationship. He ordered his daughter to stop seeing this brave but she refused and actually left the family to live with her lover on Thomas Mt.

Her father, furious at her pronouncement, ordered several of his braves to go after her, and kill the offending brave. But his daughter upon learning of her father's rage, decided she would rather die than live alone.

So, she and her lover rode back to Suicide Rock and just as her father braves drew into range to shoot and kill her lover, both of them leapt to their deaths and fell over 2,000 feet to the valley floor below.

You might be wondering why we called the Rock Lilly Rock instead of Suicide Rock. Well it seems that after the snow melts up on top of the rock, lilies grow during the spring time. The Indian Princess before leaping to her death, gripped a handful of Lillies and hand in hand with her lover chose death over loneness.

So that is the true story of Suicide Rock. If you have read or heard it before for other areas of the land, well who's to say other wise. Not me, that's for sure.

Gary Hall; Theghostpainter