History

The Rock Dam

In 1885, the newly created lake at Big Bear sat like a jewel at the east end of the San Bernardino Mountains. The new lake had drowned more than 9,000 trees in the valley. All of the rotting stumps were a major breeding ground for insects, which provided an abundant food supply for the 10,000 trout that were placed in the lake in 1887. These trout grew to be quite large, weighing to four to six pounds on average.

As a result, Big Bear Lake became a magnet for fisherman and campers. But, traveling to the lake was not easy. A trip to Big Bear from San Bernardino usually took two days with a combination of horse drawn stage and burro pack trains. Even so, each summer would find fisherman camped all around the lake.

Three years after the rock dam was built, two local Big Bear ranchers, Gus Knight Jr. and John Metcalf, saw an opportunity. They formed a partnership, purchased 80 acres just south of where the village sits today, and built Big Bear's first resort hotel, the Bear Valley Hotel. They started taking reservations in February for their grand opening in June. In spite of the difficulties involved in getting to Big Bear, the new hotel was completely booked with advance reservations by May 1. The popularity of the new hotel forced Knight and Metcalf to add tents and cots to handle the overflow of guests.

Business was so good that Knight and Metcalf decided they wanted a wagon road all the way into Big Bear. Knight lobbied with the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors for a public road into the mountains, but their request was flatly refused. So Knight and Metcalf took matters into their own hands. In 1891, they incorporated the Bear Valley Wagon Road Company and built their own road.

There was an existing City Creek toll road that ran from San Bernardino to Running Springs that had been built by the Highland Lumber Company years earlier. Knight's new toll road ran from Fawnskin, through Holcomb Valley, along what is now USFS road 2N13 to Green Valley and then to Running Springs to connect with the City Creek road. This new road allowed tourists to travel all the way to Big Bear from San Bernardino in only one and one half days, in the relative comfort of a wagon. As a result, Knight's Bear Valley Hotel enjoyed a monopoly on the tourist business in Big Bear for the next twelve years.

But, on New Year's Eve, December 24, 1900, the hotel mysteriously burned to the ground. The cause of the fire was never determined, but overnight, the resort business in Big Bear had been wiped out.

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