By Ken Brafman, Image from ROWHS Collection
TITLE: AUTOMOBILE TRAVEL COMES TO THE MOUNTAINS: The Mormons built the first road in the San Bernardino Mountains to haul lumber to build their settlement in the valley. Before long the steep road was used by adventurous souls who wanted to camp and visit the forest. Roads that were built afterwards were mostly one-way to pass, using infrequent turnouts. Grades were steep and the hairpins turns, or switchbacks, were challenging. The completion of the dam that created Big Bear Lake in 1884 sparked new tourism, and the only access was by way of the old miner’s trail up Santa Ana Canyon. Gus Knight and John Metcalf incorporated the Bear Valley Wagon Road Company in 1891. The Wilshire Stage Lines came next in 1892 and in the same year the new Arrowhead Reservoir Company completed its improved road through Waterman Canyon. With better roads and increased wagon and stagecoach lines resorts sprang up across the mountain. Soon people began hearing talk of an experimental ‘horseless carriage.’ There were a few daring auto owners in San Bernardino who wanted to make the drive up the mountain, but the county supervisors forbade it. Dr. John Baylis got 100 signatures on a petition and on August 28, 1909, he packed the supervisors into an assortment of vehicles, leaving City Hall at 7:30 a.m. and arriving at the Little Bear Dam construction site at 11:05 without incident. They watched the locomotives and steam shovels work, and returned. This paved the way for the gradual allowing of motor vehicles to use the roads. A few days later, Arrowhead Company Director James Mooney and Dr. Baylis were standing at the crest of Waterman Canyon Road when a 2-cylinder truck called the Little Giant, this week’s image, came chugging up, hauling a ton and a half of bagged concrete. As the driver waved to them Mooney looked over at Baylis and said, “Never was it more evident that coming events do cast their shadow ahead.”