MILEPOSTS #1122

By Ken Brafman, Image from Ken Brafman Collection

TITLE: MOUNTAIN HISTORY 101 – PART 1: The first white man ever to set foot in Little Bear Valley (now known as Lake Arrowhead) was a fur trader, who was a partner of Jedediah Smith, in 1826. Smith was a colorful character known for skirmishes with grizzly bears, depicted in this week’s image. At that time, about 40 Paiute Indians, a warlike tribe, used the mountains for their hunting grounds. At the same time, a more peaceful tribe, the Serranos, lived very near Bear Valley, in an area now known as Rock Camp, on the north side of the mountain. They did not bother the settlers until one of the white men made advances to an Indian maiden, which caused a skirmish killing both Indians and white men. They hunted in the beautiful and bountiful valley and lived relatively peaceful, somewhat nomadic lives descending to the desert highlands and warmer inland valleys during the winter months. The first so-called Mormon Road up the mountain was built in 1852. In the 1860s the main attraction for the white man was logging, lumber and cattle, and there were several sawmills in and around the valley. White man in the Little Bear Valley was first interested in the lumber. The trees were tall and straight and cut lumber could be hauled down to San Bernardino on a road constructed through the west end of the range. Daley Canyon Road was built in 1870. Summers were productive in the valley, but everything stopped in the winter. A few families remained during the winter months and their only diversion was to snowshoe to their distant neighbors to visit. In the early 1890s Little Bear Valley was chosen as a location for a reservoir which would supply water to the lowlands in the San Bernardino Valley. Work on the reservoir started in 1893. Camp I in the north end of the valley was built to house the workers.

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