A Brief History of Big Bear First People The first human inhabitants of the area that is now known as the Big Bear Valley were of an Indian tribe that’s thought to be of Shoshonean descent. It’s thought that they migrated to the area 3000 years ago from what's now Wyoming. The Spanish explorers who first encountered these Indians referred to them as “Serranos”, which means mountain people. Big Bear Naming In the early 1840's a farmer named Benjamin D Willis owned a large ranch in what is now known as Riverside, California. Indians where raiding local ranches and stealing the rancher's cattle and horses. In 1845 Mr. Willis was authorized by the governor of California to put together a group of men and go after the Indian raiders. In pursuit of these thieves, the group of men rode up the San Bernadino River, heading for what is now known as the Big Bear Valley. There they found a large population of grizzly bears near the lake that we know today as Baldwin Lake. They named that lake Big Bear, after the bears. Although the Big Bear Lake that we know today didn't actually exist until the dam was built, it eventually inherited the name that they had given the original lake. The original lake was later renamed to Baldwin Lake, after Elias J Baldwin, who owned the nearby Gold Mountain Mine. The Dam In 1883, Frank E. Brown of Redlands, California organized a local land and water company to build Big Bear's first dam, creating the lake that we know today as Big Bear Lake. The lake served the water needs of the farmers in the valley below for many years. In the early 1900's, however, their needs began to exceed it's capacity. Around 1910-1911 a new, larger dam was constructed in order to add capacity, making Big Bear Lake the largest man made lake in the world (at the time). In 1988 this 77-year-old dam was reinforced to comply with earthquake safety standards. Tourism Though Big Bear was popular among gold prospectors and moviemakers (particularly those filming westerns), it wasn't until automobiles became popular and a road was built into the Big Bear Valley that tourism really began to take off. The snow made Big Bear a popular cross country skiing destination, and the area became know as a great fishing destination because of it’s unusually large fish. The fish grew unusually large because of the ample food supply that was created by the trees that were submerged as the lake filled (due to the dam). Downhill Skiing In 1952, construction began on Snow Summit. In 1953 it's first chairlift was installed. In 1964, it's first man-made snow was produced. In 1966 Snow Summit offered it's first night skiing. In 1988, Snow Summit opened it's chair lifts to mountain bikes. 1996+, Snow Summit began adding features designed specifically to target snowboarders, such as freestyle parks, rails, sliders, and 1/2 pipes. The Future Bear Mountain Resorts recently invested a huge amount of money into new, modern snowmaking equipment, giving them the ability to turn a bare hill into 2 feet of snow practically overnight (weather permitting). The key limitation to operating this equipment, however, is the weather. It has to be cold enough and dry enough to make snow. A fascinating, recent development in modern technology is that there is now equipment available that will make snow in any weather. Imagine it being the middle of July. It’s so hot outside in the valley below that you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. You make plans to get out of the heat, and now you have 2 options, head to the beach to play in the surf or head up to Big Bear to go skiing or snowboarding, in the middle of the summer! It’s unbelievable to think that this technology actually exists today, ready to be deployed by the local ski mountains. According to IDE-tech’s website, their all weather snowmaker can produce up to 2000 cubic meters of snow per day. Have a look at what the future has in store for us: http://www.ide-snowmaker.com/ Further reading about Big Bear History:http://www.bigbearhistory.org
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| Riverside 'R' in the canyon between Big Bear and Riverside |
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| Aerial shot of Baldwin Lake |