page_title: California State Route 243
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: California State Route 243 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Damage to California State Highway 243 near Idyllwild after heavy rain on February 14, 2019.
context_page_description: State Route 243, or the Banning-Idyllwild Panoramic Highway, is a 30-mile two-lane state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs from Banning to Idyllwild in Riverside County. The highway is a connector between Interstate 10 and SR 74. Along its route, it provides access to the San Bernardino National Forest. A road from Banning to Idyllwild was planned around the turn of the twentieth century, and was open by 1910. The road was added to the state highway system in 1970.
context_section_description: A road from Banning to Idyllwild was under construction in 1904, and 12 miles (19 km) of the road was open by August, with an additional six miles (9.7 km) of the road planned. Another four miles (6.4 km) were commissioned in 1908. The oiled road was completed by September 1910, and provided a view of Lake Elsinore and the Colorado Desert, and it was expected to help with transporting lumber and stopping fires; because of this, the federal government provided $2,000 for the construction. The road became a part of the forest highway system in 1927.
  A new "high-gear" road from Banning to Idyllwild was under way by 1935, and two years later, the Los Angeles Times considered the road to be "high-gear". Efforts to pave the road were under way in 1950. The road from Banning through Idyllwild to SR 74 was known as County Route R1 (CR R1) by 1966. By 1969, plans were in place to add the Banning to Idyllwild to Mountain Center road as a state highway; earlier, State Senator Nelson S. Dilworth proposed legislation to require the road to be added to the state highway system if SR 195 was removed, as the two were of roughly the same length, but the latter remained in the system. SR 243 was added to the state highway system in 1970. The Division of Highways suggested deleting the highway in 1971. In 1998, Caltrans had no plans to improve the route through 2015.
  On February 14, 2019, heavy rain caused severe damage to the highway, causing it to close for several months. It has since reopened.
caption: Damage to SR 243 on February 14, 2019
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