By Rhea-Frances Tetley
Historian
The year 1914 was a turning point in world and San Bernardino Mountains history. Everything locally was about to change.
The Little Bear Reservoir project being constructed by the Arrowhead Reservoir and Power Company had just lost the lawsuit against them from the desert property owners, prohibiting the diversion of even “one drop” of water to San Bernardino, so their 25-year irrigation project was forced to change. The final remaining financier of the reservoir project, James Mooney, pivoted the reservoir project into a private lake fishing club.
The south shore fishing village built by concessionaires Gus Knight and F. A. Edwards after signing a lease with the Arrowhead Reservoir & Power Company.
Also, the mode of transportation was changing. A Stoddard-Dayton automobile had been driven up the former Arrowhead Reservoir Toll Road (became a public wagon road in 1905) in 1910, driving up Waterman Canyon, arriving in Big Bear Valley several days later.
In 1910 Jack Heyser proved that automotives could use the public wagon roads when he drove his White-Steamer Runabout up Clark’s Grade to Big Bear and down the Snowslide Road though Green Valley and along the Crest Boulevard Wagon Road, down through Waterman Canyon returning to San Bernardino in one day, winning a bet. Dr. John Baylis, Pinecrest Resort’s owner, began encouraging the county to open the roads to motorized travel in 1910, by inviting the county supervisors and government officials to tour the road themselves.
Because of the supervisors’ and people’s desire for faster, motorized transit, in 1914 the Crest Boulevard Wagon Road began being upgraded into the Rim of the World Scenic Drive, with modifications for automobile traffic.
In 1914, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors announced the “new” Mountain Crest Drive: The road follows the crest of the mountains, reaching all the magnificent summer resorts located there. The newly named Rim of the World Drive will be open all year to motorized vehicles. One will be able to leave San Bernardino by an automobile and in an hour, when completed, be enjoying such vistas as can be found nowhere else in the world.
A car coming up the Rim of the World Drive, which was a dirt road in 1915 when it opened.
The road was to remain open all seasons, was 101 miles long and it was promised that the new road would change the mountain experience from “roughing it” to a pleasant trip by either auto stage (bus) or in a private car. The beautiful vistas would be accessible to all. “This new auto road provides access to some of the most magnificent scenic views in the world,” said Dr. Baylis.
World War I began in July 1914. The mountains were only sparsely populated when the Trout Association requested permission for public fishing in Little Bear Lake that year, which was denied. “The Arrowhead Company wishes to establish a big private resort on the lake with exclusive fishing privileges,” stated Mooney.
However, when the 1915 fishing season opened, with the Rim of the World Drive open to automobile traffic, hundreds of unexpected, unwanted fishermen lined the shores of the Little Bear Lake, with some launching boats on Mooney’s private lake. The campfires and camping around the lake greatly disturbed Arrowhead Company officials who had denied public access to their lake. On May 10, the Arrowhead Company completely closed the lake and charged 71 people with vandalism, recovering $131 from each. Consequently, the fishermen threatened to sue.
The compromise reached allowed restricted public fishing on one-and-a-half miles of the lake’s south shore. Mooney hired concessionaires – Big Bear’s Gus Knight to rent boats and San Bernardino’s F. A. Edwards to build a lunchroom and rent camping tents to the fishermen.
In 1915, auto stages began running daily on the new Rim of the World Drive, in connection with the Pacific Electric and Santa Fe Railroads, with brochures boasting, “Tourists who have travelled the world have repeatedly stated that for grand and beautiful mountain scenery, the San Bernardino Mountains are unsurpassed.”
Construction continued on the dam and Little Bear Lake continued filling. More than 2,000 fishermen attended 1916’s opening day. James Mooney opened a 150-bed hotel for fishermen, 26 rental cabins, another campground and a store. The Rim of the World Drive was successfully attracting visitors to the mountains, changing the direction of the development of the forest.
Little Bear Lake fishing tent cabins rented by F.A. Edwards.
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