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The possibility of creating a hill station in the area was first voiced in 1888 by Sir Hugh Low, a Perak resident, who suggested it might be a suitable place for a sanatorium, health resort and farmland. In 1886, a sum of $20,000 was estimated for improving and extending the bridle path to the highlands. Again in 1902, provision was made for widening the bridle path up to the 34th mile.
For a long period very little happened, it was not until 1925, over 40 years after William Cameron's original discovery, when Sir George Maxwell visited the area that it was decided to develop it into a hill station. The British administration oversaw the construction of a proper road, initially 50 kilometres long up to Ringlet, the highlands first town.
The first highlands tea plantations were developed in 1929 by John Archibald Russell, and by 1934 the area had become quite successful, but the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 initiated a long and turbulent period in Cameron Highlands history.
The Japanese invasion of Malaya in 1941 eventually forced all British troops and civilians to leave the highlands and retreat to Singapore. The Japanese arrived the day after the British left, based their headquarters in Tanah Rata and began to administer the area.
Generally during the following four year period the people were allowed to continue their everyday life, possibly because the highlands vegetable farms were vital for supplying Japanese troops stationed in the rest of Malaya.
In
1945 the British began to retake Malaya and the Japanese were forced to
retreat from the highlands and the British gradually returned to administer
the area. During the occupation, guerilla groups organized resistance
against the Japanese, this continued after the war as a number of these
groups joined the Communist party fighting to create a Malayan Republic.
The Malayan government declared a state of emergency in 1948 and during
this period the highlands were greatly affected, as a number of communist
guerillas based their operations in the dense jungle surrounding the area.
Following independence from British rule in 1957, the communist influence
faded, and in 1960 the State of Emergency was called off.
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