By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
HISTORIAN
An historic day in the San Bernardino Mountains was July 18, 1915, which was remembered in 2009 and celebrated in 2015.
On that date in 1915, the opening of the Rim of the World Road was celebrated. That initiated full-time motor vehicle use connecting the mountaintop with the valley below. Dr. John N. Baylis, the Pine Crest Resort owner, who promoted the creation of the road beginning in 1909, held a grand ceremony revealing the monument and opening the new 101-mile Rim of the World Road, through his South Park property.
The original Rim of the World Drive monument being dedicated in 1915. (Photos from the photo collection of Rhea-Frances Tetley)
The road was 101 miles long using county public (dirt) roadways, creating a circular route from San Bernardino, up Waterman Canyon across the rim thru Pinecrest, to Lake Arrowhead, on to Running Springs, through Green Valley to Fawnskin, circling around Big Bear Lake and down Clarks Grade (a very steep grade through the upper Santa Ana River Canyon which, after severe flooding in 1916, led to the construction of Highway 38) and back to San Bernardino.
Baylis intentionally invited 101 politicians, landowners, mountain enthusiasts and newspaper reporters to the grand event. A speech given by future California Poet Laureate John Steven McGroarty included the phrase naming the road, “I baptize thee ‘Rim of the World,’ tell thy story to the children of the earth as they pass this way.” (This speech is next week.) Then those invited ate barbecue and enjoyed a two-day tour of the Rim of the World Drive.
In 2009, again on July 18th, the restored 101-mile Rim of the World Road monument was rededicated at Baylis Park on Highway 18 by the Rim of the World Historical Society (ROWHS). Those attending that ceremony included Crestline’s honorary mayor, landowners, mountain enthusiasts, reporters, authors and historians. Roger G. Hatheway, former ROWHS president and author of the book Rim of the World Drive, stated, “The monument is appropriately now located in Baylis Park on Baylis’ former South Park land. Without Baylis, the Rim of the World Road may never have existed, nor become as famous as it did without his advocacy and promotion.”
Hatheway also described his excitement while searching Pinecrest’s South Park property for the monument’s original location when his wife, Lora, found original monument rocks with the cement still attached, which were then included in the reconstructed monument.
The top of the monument as it sat west of Rim Forest in 2000.
The monument was relocated to a second location when the road was realigned in the 1930s, to a turnout on Highway 18, west of Rimforest. Serious concerns arose in 2003 after the Old Fire and several earthquakes that, with its cliffside location, it might fall off the edge. After years of negotiations, ROWHS finally received permission from Caltrans and the Forest Service to relocate it.
ROWHS board member Ed Hamm coordinated rebuilding the monument at Baylis Park. Reconstruction required additional permissions from both agencies, creating a delay between removal and rededication.
On display at the 2009 rededication ceremony were many photos of the original and second monuments, the original dedication ceremony and photos of the reconstruction project. The original 250-pound cement plaque with the dedication script which reads “101 Mile Drive on the Rim of the World. Dedicated July 18, 1915” was used, as were the found rocks.
Finally, a huge centennial party was held on Saturday, July 18, 2015. It was sponsored by the ROWHS and U.S. Forest Service at Baylis Park, at the reconstructed 1915 monument.
As the centennial ceremony began, with many government officials presenting certificates and plaques honoring the event, an unexpected July thunderstorm was spotted coming across the valley. Then the biggest thunder and lightning storm in decades poured down rain over the festivities. The dignitaries hastily handed over their plaques and left, without giving their speeches.
A caravan of historic vehicles led by the Crestline Bus, the San Bernardino National Forest antique car and the Crest Forest fire engine (all open top vehicles with dignitaries) was planned to cruise along the highway, stopping to hear guest speakers – at Rim of the World High School, Heaps Peak Arboretum and completing the tour at Green Valley Lake’s Lilleberg Museum located on the original Rim of the World Drive. Of the almost 100 attending the Baylis Park centennial ceremony, only about 15 to 20 completed the drive in the pouring rain to Green Valley.
The 2009 dedication of the 101-mile monument in Baylis Park by the Rim of the World Historical Society.
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