By Bill Pumford, Image from ROWHS Collection

TITLE: THE OLD SWITCHBACK ROAD – PART I: The roads going into the San Bernardino Mountains have been evolving for more than 150 years. After the Mormons settled in the San Bernardino Valley in 1851 a road to harvest timber in the local mountains was built in 1852. The logging provided lumber for building of San Bernardino structures as well as for selling lumber in Los Angeles to pay off the mortgage. The Mormon Road, as it was referred to, went through Waterman Canyon (known as West Twin Creek in the late 1800s) and straight up the mountain, ending in today’s Crestline. It was very steep and dangerous. Alternative routes were developed to make the trip easier and safer. The Daley Road (originally called the Twin and City Creek Turnpike), built by Edward Daley in 1870, went along Twin City Creek and reached the summit east of Rim Forest. The Devil Canyon Road was built about 1879 and reached the summit west of Crestline. In 1891 the Arrowhead Reservoir Company started construction of another road into the mountains primarily to make the transportation of supplies and equipment for the construction of the dam in Little Bear Valley easier and less costly. It was thought at the time that the Devil Canyon toll road was too far west of the Crestline area to be practical, and the Daley toll road was too steep going up. The new Arrowhead Reservoir toll road followed the Waterman Canyon route but then took off near Panorama Point on a zig zag route up the mountain and reached the summit a little west of Crestline at what is now the five points intersection. It was generally considered that going down the Daley Road saved several miles but going up the mountain was much more easily done using the Arrowhead Reservoir Road (eventually referred to as the old switchback road).