By Ken Brafman, Image from ROWHS Collection

TITLE: Exclusive Origins of the Squirrel Inn: Following the success of the Big Bear Dam project in the 1880s new water projects were explored in the western San Bernardino Mountains. Around 1890 the Arrowhead Reservoir Company was formed and one of its first actions was to build the Waterman Canyon Toll Road which was completed in 1892. With improved accessibility better accommodations began springing up, the most famous being the Squirrel Inn, this week’s image circa 1920. In 1892, under the leadership of Adolph Wood, the Arrowhead Mountain Club purchased 200 acres just east of Arrowhead Highlands, overlooking the San Bernardino Valley with panoramic vistas as far as the Pacific Ocean. Membership to the organization was by invitation only with an initiation fee of $500 and annual dues of $100. By 1893 the rustic three-story inn was completed. The main building contained a spacious general assembly room, kitchen, dining room, a ladies’ lounge and a gentlemen’s smoking lounge, and sleeping accommodations for members and guests. Most of the charter members built private cabins on the grounds. By 1910 the club coasted 38 cabins, none of which had kitchens. It was considered ‘low class’ to prepare one’s own meals so gourmet meals were served in the lodge. George and John Dexter built most of the cabins including the luxurious seven-bedroom Mooney Lodge. In 1907 they also built the Dexter Store. Recreation included tennis, croquet, horseshoes, hiking and fishing. On August 4, 1922, a fire completely destroyed the lodge and four cabins. The inn was rebuilt at a lesser scale of luxury and the cabin owners began adding kitchens to their dwellings. During the Great Depression the club defaulted on their taxes and a group of former members paid the back taxes and formed the Squirrel Inn Holding Company. The holding company managed the property until 1975, when a private party purchased the aging buildings.