By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Historian
The Squirrel Inn was a private resort owned by members of the Arrowhead Mountain Club, which opened in 1893 and had yearly dues of $500, which kept it exclusive.
The members were the powerful and rich of that Gilded Age, including James E. Mooney, vice president of the Arrowhead Reservoir Company, who helped manage the construction of Little Bear Dam. Adolph Wood, the general manager of the Arrowhead Reservoir Company, and Seth Marshall of the Arrowhead Hot Springs Corporation, which built a sanitarium at the hot springs at the base of the mountain, were club members with private residences at the exclusive Squirrel Inn, with a crank private line telephone in the lodge.
The original Squirrel Inn Lodge, built in 1890s, burned down in the 1922 fire. A smaller version was immediately rebuilt duplicating it down to the fireplace mantle that that held the stuffed squirrels.
Prominent San Bernardino physician John N. Baylis, Squirrel Inn treasurer, was the former Santa Fe Railroad doctor. In 1904, Baylis purchased the 160 acres adjacent to the Squirrel Inn, when that forest was threatened by logging. There he built the Pinecrest Resort, which opened in 1909.
Other Inn members included W.H. Burnham of the Pope-Toledo Automobile Company, James Fishburn of the Los Angeles Home Telephone Company, several judges and others. They were conservative-minded conservationists, who supported the gold standard and hated the hero of the common people, William Jennings Bryan.
Fishing and hunting were favorite activities of club members. The multi-talented Professor “Uncle Billy” Stephens entertained frequently, quoting Shakespeare, dancing the Highland Fling and playing the concertina. The Squirrel Inn offered activities for the families, including charades, costume parties and dancing to the phonograph, with tennis and croquet courts.
In 1896, members’ friends were allowed to pay $12 a week to visit the Squirrel Inn, which was expensive but helped maintain the exclusivity. Most families brought along their maids, governesses and chauffeurs who stayed in the nice servants’ quarters provided. In the summertime, most members visited for weeks or months at a time.
The May 1911 fire was a close brush with disaster for the Squirrel Inn, as the employees and even members and guests used wet blankets to slap out the embers as they fell on the buildings and grounds, until Forest Service Rangers finally came and fought the blaze. Sixteen medals of valor for firefighting were handed out by grateful Squirrel Inn members during the August “Changing of the Squirrel Dinner.”
Brothers John and Greg Dexter were employees at the Squirrel Inn, as builders and repairmen. When Julia Nick married Greg Dexter, their first home was the Squirrel Inn, as he was the 1920 winter caretaker. Greg went on to build the Antlers Resort in Twin Peaks.
During the 1922 fire, three cabins were destroyed, and the Lodge was severely burned. The club members assessed themselves and rebuilt it, although 25 percent smaller than the original. As the original members got older, the Squirrel Inn continued to be actively used by members’ children through the 1920s.
During the 1930s Depression, the property fell into default for the taxes. Then, a group of the former Arrowhead Mountain Club members bought the property and formed the Squirrel Inn Holding Company; its members included W.H. Burnham, J.E. Fishburn, A.H. Halstead and W.L. Valentine. The homes were leased back to the old members and friends and passed down by inheritance. The residences added kitchens, and the Lodge became its recreation hall. Doors from the Halstead cabin are on display at the Mountain History Museum.
For 89 years the property remained the private playground of the founding club members and their descendants. It was sold in 1981 to Carson and Margaret Grant.
The property and buildings are now owned by a private religious group, The Church of Spiritual Technology, which has restored many of the original Squirrel Inn buildings to better-than-original condition. The Squirrel Inn property is still private and exclusive and currently not accessible to the public.
Built in 1896, the Halsted cabin was owned by affluent citrus grove owners in Redlands, who brought the innovation of indoor/outdoor living to the mountains with their sliding door and a galvanized roof for fire safety. It would take two days for the Halsted family (with their cook) to trek in their wagon up to the Squirrel Inn from Redlands; they would spend weeks hunting, fishing and enjoying the cooler mountain air.
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