By Rhea Frances-Tetley
Historian
Three wagon trains with 437 Mormons were sent to establish a colony in Southern California by religious leader Brigham Young in 1851. They purchased the Ranchero San Bernardino from the Lugo family for $77,500.
A closeup of the current Mormon Road monument.
When the Mormon settlers arrived in San Bernardino, they needed lumber to construct buildings. They could not find enough trees for good lumber where they built their first sawmill in Mill Creek Canyon, near Daniel Sexton’s sawmill. Then they saw the tall trees along the crest of these mountains, which they called the Sierra Nevadas, and they decided to explore. The scouts found large trees, plus creek water strong enough to power a sawmill in what became known as Seely Creek, not far from the crest and just north of their colony in San Bernardino.
The original 1922 Mormon Road monument, now lost to time.
The Mormon settlers wanted lumber for several reasons. First, to build a stockade to protect their community from unknown dangers or Indians, and to build houses. Also, they realized lumbering was a way to earn enough to pay off the high-interest $77,500 mortgage, payable to the Lugos on Ranchero San Bernardino.
Los Angeles needed building materials for their rapidly growing city, buying as much lumber as they could, so the Mormon colony leaders saw that the development of sawmills was a wise economic decision.
Colony leader Amasa Lyman called for all men of the colony to build a road up the front of the mountain through West Twin Creek Canyon (Waterman Canyon) for the colony’s benefit in May of 1852. In 10 days, using 1,000 man-days of labor, with picks and shovels, the Mormon lumber road was cut up the mountain, some of it with grades of 41 percent (current roads have a maximum grade of 6 to 8 percent).
Brothers Wellington and David Seely (David had led the second wagon train to San Bernardino) built the first water-powered sawmill on Seely Creek in Seely Flats (now known as the Valley of Enchantment in Crestline). The sawmill was located at the lower end of the flats, where Camp Seeley is now. The water was removed from the creek and carried by a flume to a log cabin penstock. There, a gate at its bottom opened, and the water was sent onto a 10-foot-diameter, undershot waterwheel. With their circular “muley saw,” about 2,500 feet of lumber could be cut per day.
The “new” 1991 Mormon Road monument located in the turnout of Highway 18 just below the Crestline Bridge.
Because of the construction of the Mormon Road, by the next summer there were six additional lumber mills operating on the mountaintop. Some of them were steam engine operated. This much lumbering business kept the Mormon lumber road, despite its very steep grade, very active. The sawmills were seasonal, operating from spring through fall. The lumber was being shipped as far away as San Francisco. The colony became prosperous and the lumber was called “Mormon banknotes.”
David Seely with four others created San Bernardino County in 1853, separating it from Los Angeles County. Seely was elected as San Bernardino’s first county treasurer in 1853.
In 1857, Mormon leader Brigham Young not happy with the colony’s financial success and called for “the Faithful” to return to Salt Lake City, stating he was having “difficulties” with the United States government and war was probable. Wellington Seely immediately returned to defend Utah, leaving David to run the sawmill. Most of the San Bernardino Mormon families, who operated the mountain sawmills, sold their properties, at “ruinous sacrifice” prices, immediately returning to Utah.
David Seely did eventually go to Salt Lake City but was kicked out by Brigham Young. He returned to San Bernardino and his family, continuing to operate his sawmill. Both the Seely sawmill and the Mormon Road were washed away by the Noachian Deluge Flood of 1862.
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