By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Historian
Summertime on the mountain is the best time to experience the great outdoors and go fishing and hiking. The difficulty in the early days was getting up the mountains but it was well rewarded by pleasant temperatures and cool breezes unlike the blistering temperatures in the valley below.
One of the first mountain resorts was Fredalba Resort. Albert Smiley and his son Fred of Redlands wanted to build a retreat like the Mountain House Hotel Resort that Albert and his brother Alfred operated at Lake Mohonk in the Catskill Mountains, near the Hudson River in upstate New York.
Sam and Arthur Halsted with J. Harrison and Hutchie Colson on a summer fishing and hunting trip from the Squirrel Inn in the 1900s.
Albert Smiley, when he came to California to see his adult son, was a rich, older man. He wanted a California resort out of the heat of the valley to relax. The Smileys purchased 267 acres of land in 1895 from the defunct Highland Sawmill, at the 5,500-foot level. At the Fredalba (a combination of their first names) Resort, they built a restaurant, store, post office and dance hall. Albert had Fred built roads, cabins to rent and water wells, and he sold lots for others to build upon, such as the Buffum family, owners of the department store chain. They laid out a beautiful resort, one of the first in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Activities at Fredalba in the 1890s included strolling along scenic paths, enjoying cool breezes, lawn tennis, croquet, horseback riding and the very popular hike to Sunset Rocks, from where one could watch the spectacular sunsets, with views of the spectacular valley and to the ocean beyond. It was the perfect place to relax.
Gus Knight extended the Highland Lumber Road to Big Bear through Green Valley. Fredalba became the luncheon stop for the horse-drawn stage line for travelers going to the Big Bear Lake resorts, one which was owned by Knight.
The rich had been “rusticating” at the exclusive Squirrel Inn since the mid-1890s, enjoying hunting, fishing, relaxing and sports such as tennis. Dr. John Baylis, the Squirrel Inn’s treasurer, was the promoter extraordinaire of the beauty of the mountains. Through Baylis’ persistent efforts, San Bernardino County purchased the dirt logging roads in 1905, opening them to public access.
The Lyman stage arriving at the Pine Crest Resort around 1910 before the days of auto traffic.
In 1905, Dr. Baylis became aware the Smithson land adjacent to the Squirrel Inn was going to be logged. He bought it, building cabins, a dance hall, dining hall, pavilions and a hotel, opening the Pinecrest Resort in 1909, with very reasonable rates. Pinecrest became “the place to stay,” chosen by movie companies and tourists. The horse-drawn stage line brought most vacationers there.
The Strawberry Flat Campground became the place to camp in the early 1900s (where the county building is now) with entertainment by Uncle Billy Stephen, “the Bard of Strawberry Flat.” People enjoyed camping there, coming up the Arrowhead Road which opened to free public use in 1906.
Baylis later convinced the county to connect those roads in 1915, allowing automobile traffic on them, creating the 101-mile-long Rim of the World Highway, with the “most beautiful vistas available anywhere in the world.” Summer tourism jumped significantly.
When Little Bear Lake (Lake Arrowhead) began to fill, many stream fishermen switched to lake fishing despite the discouragement of the Little Bear Lake officials who wanted it private.
A 1916 agreement was made to open 1.5 miles of Little Bear Lake shoreline for public fishing. That year, 2,000 fishermen arrived on opening day to fish. Gus Knight Jr. from Big Bear ran the concessions and boat rentals. Soon a 150-bed hotel for fishermen, 26 rental cabins, store, campgrounds and post office were opened, as the lake level continued to rise.
The rustic Little Bear Lake Resort was one of the most popular summertime destinations until 1922, when J.B. Van Nuys purchased the lake and surrounding property.
The Green Valley toll house on the Knight & Metcalf Road to Big Bear.
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