MILEPOSTS #1049

By Ken Brafman, Image from ROWHS

TITLE: TURN OF THE CENTURY PROGRESS – Part II: In addition to mining and cutting timber, in 1891 new employment was becoming available with the Arrowhead Reservoir Company (ARC). The firm had ambitious plans to reverse the flow of mountain streams, which were presently providing water to the high desert, and to store the water in a system of reservoirs, for use in irrigation in the San Bernardino Valley. Generating hydroelectric power was part of the plan, as well. Mountain residents began to hurriedly find and record deeds in anticipation of the ARC’s purchase of land and water rights for road construction and irrigation projects. The summer saw a surge in road building. The crew building City Creek Road (now Highway 330) abandoned their goal of having a 10% grade in favor of zigzagging to the crest, to expedite getting transportation up and going. The ARC contracted out parcels of its promised road to local builders to try and speed up the process of connecting the route up Waterman Canyon and across the ridge with the Grass Valley-Little Bear Canyon link of county road. Soon most areas could be accessed by stage, allowing anyone with the fare, time, and a suitcase an opportunity to get away and enjoy the beauty of the mountains. With improved transportation, business was booming. In the fall an exclusive club built the Squirrel Inn, this week’s image, boasting a membership price tag of $500. Progress was made in generating electricity, with a power plant and diversion dam being built above Mill Creek. By the summer of 1893, the citizens of Redlands saw their first electric lights turned on. Congress designated 737,000 acres as the San Bernardino National Forest, the first such forest in the country. As the decade moved forward the country experienced an economic depression that last until 1897. There were hard times on the mountain, but by the turn of the century business and tourism were once again moving forward, with new resorts being built and new towns swelling with people filled with vision and the pioneer spirit.

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