How Idyllwild came to be governed by a golden retriever — Mayor Max, elected in 2012 and beloved ever since, the friendliest head of state in the San Jacintos.
Now, before I tell you the deep dark legends of the rocks above this town, let me give you a happier one, and a true one, because Idyllwild has a distinction I promise you your own hometown does not: the mayor of this town is a dog.
I am not pulling your leg. Here's how it happened. Idyllwild is what they call an unincorporated community — meaning, officially, it's got no town hall, no city council, no elected mayor of the ordinary human kind. So back in 2012, the local animal-rescue folks looked at that empty mayor's chair and thought, well, why not have some fun with it and raise a little money for the shelter while we're at it? So they held an election. And the candidates were not politicians in suits — they were fourteen dogs. And two cats, for good measure.
And the winner, the landslide people's choice, was a happy golden retriever named Max. Just like that, Idyllwild had itself a mayor with four legs and a wagging tail. They gave him a little inauguration and everything, made it official as it needed to be, which is to say not very — and the town absolutely fell in love with the idea.
And here's the sweet part: it stuck. When the first Mayor Max passed on, the people didn't want to go back to a human — no sir — so another golden retriever took up the office, and then another after him. There's been a Mayor Max running this town for well over a decade now, a line of golden retrievers, mayor-for-life every one of them. And this is no dog kept shut up in some office. The mayor works the town — he's out on the main street most days in a little mayoral car, greeting the tourists, posing for photographs, visiting the shops and the schools, shaking paws, the best-loved and most photographed resident in the whole San Jacinto range.
So when you're strolling Idyllwild and a friendly golden retriever comes up to say hello — mind your manners. You may well be in the presence of the mayor. It's that kind of town: a place up in the pines that looked at how the rest of the world does things, and decided, gently, to do it their own sweeter way. Now — about those rocks up above, and the older, darker story they carry.
Photo: Dietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0
