Milepost #926

Jun 6, 2019

By BilPumford, Image from Nanci Hewitt Atchley Collection

TITLE: CEDAR SPRINGS PART I: This week’s image is a photo of Carl and Ella Hewitt around the year 1915. The Hewitts homesteaded the area known at the time as Cedar Springs. That area is now at the bottom of Silverwood Lake but just how it got there will be explained in Part II. In the Cedar Springs area there were 160 one-acre parcels available for homesteading. At first the Hewitts would ride their motorcycle up Cajon Pass, take Cleghorn Road, park the bike and walk several miles just to get to their property, since no roads existed. Carl Hewitt was a medical student at what is now Loma Linda University but had to leave after contracting tuberculosis. Eventually roads were put in the area and more families began making Cedar Springs their home. The Hewitts raised strawberries which were sold locally as well as to businesses like Knott’s Berry Farm. Other families raised bees for honey or grew other crops such as potatoes and onions. Copeland George had a thriving market and gas station and was considered the unofficial major of Cedar Springs. There was also a school and a Seventh Day Adventist church. In the late 1910’s and early 1920’s Carl Hewitt established the Cedar Springs Health Resort to help people with tuberculosis. It was a small operation with six beds in one of the Hewitt’s cabins. A sawmill in Cedar Springs was built, operated, and maintained by Burton Hewitt, the son of Carl and Ella Hewitt. At one time there were some 100 families living in Cedar Springs. Being isolated in this remote community did have its disadvantages. During the great storm of 1938 Cedar Springs was completely cut off from the rest of the world. A rider on horseback got out with a petition signed by the families requesting help. Over the decades Cedar Springs gained a reputation as a resort where overnight camping and picnic facilities were available.

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