By Bill Pumford, Image from Russ Keller Collection

TITLE: HIRAM CLARK’S RANCH: In 1851 Elder Hiram Clark Sr. came to the San Bernardino area along with many other Mormons at the request of Brigham Young to settle the San Bernardino Valley. His son, Hiram Clark Jr., developed Clark’s Ranch during the latter part of the 1880s and he raised apples, grapes, and cattle. Clark’s Ranch became one of the best-known places in the San Bernardino Mountains and was located near Converse Flats and Seven Oaks. Hiram Clark and his family spent time in San Bernardino and alternated working the ranch, and in 1899 Hiram became a director in a corporation that proposed building the road up the hill that eventually became Clark’s Grade. According to his daughter, Grace Clark English, Hiram used a homemade triangle and plumb to build the road along with Gus Knight Jr. and others which saved a great deal of time for a trip to Big Bear. An event occurred in July of 1945 which changed the Seven Oaks area for decades thereafter. A Curtis Scout bomber crashed near Santa Ana Canyon that killed two pilots, caused a fire that destroyed 5000 acres, and cost the government more than $17,000 in firefighting costs. An alternative explanation for the fire came from Don Bauer who was a forest ranger from Big Bear. He suggested that the bomber came back from a desert training exercise and accidently released one of the bombs over the forest. Although the fire was devastating, some important things occurred as a result. The US government was sued for damages to the watershed which had not been done before and the size of the suit was based upon a study that defined, in dollars, the value of a watershed. Also, a large reforestation project was completed in 1947 which planted thousands of Jeffrey and Coulter pine trees in the burned areas.