Those Were The Days: Summer fun at Lake Arrowhead over the years

By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY

Historian

 

School is now out this week for the summer. The mountains were considered a favorite summer vacation destination for many generations of Southern Californians. Of course, the cooler summer weather in the mountains was the first appeal that drew people to the mountains.

During the 1890s, people would spend weeks on the mountain “rusticating” to get out of the blistering heat of the valley below, visiting the Squirrel Inn, camping and, beginning in 1908, at Pinecrest and the other early resorts.

The fishing village at Little Bear Lake (now known as Lake Arrowhead) attracted fishermen as soon as it was built and, when the roads allowed automobiles with the opening of the Rim of the World Drive in 1915, the mountains, streams and lakes acted like a magnet drawing people to the “heights.”

The original Lake Arrowhead Village, which opened in 1924, was designed as a tourist mecca from its inception. It had many specialty shops that appealed to visitors and had a little theater for summer performances. The movie companies also used the village and lake to film scenes as Europe or Canada, which also was another attraction for the people to come visit it and a theater to watch movies too.

Hotels and campgrounds offered accommodations for a short visit or for weeks. August was the biggest month for visitors, as the temperatures down the mountain got sizzling. Labor Day weekend always drew huge crowds.

Camp Fleming Auto Camp on Lake Arrowhead’s shore had tents and cabinettes for rent. It was popular for decades. Of course, hiking along the lake’s shore and into the cool forest was a favorite inexpensive adventure for visitors.

For many decades, Lake Arrowhead Village had a dance pavilion where the big bands of the era played (Ozzie Nelson’s orchestra played there) and the Lake Arrowhead Orchestra entertained the other nights. One of the rules of the dance floor was no hobnail boots allowed.

More than one well-known local couple met at those dances as visitors came up and met the locals that attended the dances. Sometimes those couples fell in love and got married.

One such couple (there are several) were the MacKays. Alan MacKay grew up in Twin Peaks and met Audrey at a dance at the Pavilion in 1937; they married in 1939 and remained in the mountains all their lives; Audrey worked for the lake company. (The Audrey MacKay Dam at Papoose Lake was named after her. The statue honoring their grandson Officer Jeremiah MacKay is displayed in the grassy point next to the flagpole in Lake Arrowhead Village.)

Of course, vacation homes were sold, as the private lake itself and the four-season aspect of such a nearby SoCal vacation area appealed to home buyers, especially after WWII. This created a regular flow of vacationers up the mountain.

In the 1950s there was a small locomotive that took children and visitors out and around the peninsula of the village. Other popular places for teens and young adults were the penny arcade and movie theater, the swinging gyms and bowling alley. It had the beach, swimming floats, excursion boats, the Mackenzie Water Ski School, boating and fishing for the tourists. Most hotels had swimming pools. It was a wonderful family getaway.

The 1924 Village had buildings that were deteriorating, so it was intentionally destroyed during a “Burn to Learn” exercise for the fire departments in 1979, which shuttered some businesses completely. Others relocated during the reconstruction and returned to the village, as did the tourists, who came to see the new village in the 1980s. The central Pavilion building had been spared from the flames, but the rebuilt village had less appeal to children. Eventually even the public beach was removed. The Village movie theater was not rebuilt, but one was built in Blue Jay.

Blue Jay began was a logging camp in the 1880s and developed into a private campground. A summer vacation mecca, Blue Jay was on another section of Lake Arrowhead’s shoreline. The outdoor ice-skating rink began as a wintertime activity on the lakeshore in the ‘20s but, by the 1940s, a skating rink was a year-round staple for mountain visitors. Ice skating was a major draw for the Dement-family-owned village who sold it to Pioneer Chicken Corp. who started to remodel the town anchored by Jensen’s Market.

Later, in the 1980-90s, a new ice rink, the Ice Castle under Carol Probst, hosted spectacular ice-skating shows with famous skating stars. Over the decades, it has hosted world-class athletes such as Michelle Kwan, Robin Cousins and Chen Lu. The Los Angeles Kings hockey team would practice and hold exhibition games there. The Ice Castle with the glass walls felt open and outdoors, but with controllable indoor temperatures and open to the public.

Horseback riding stables were also in Blue Jay, with horses to rent right in town, with many trails into the forest. All these activities along with arcades, lake and stream fishing, plus a pay-to-fish trout farm in Blue Jay, could keep visitors happily engaged in Blue Jay. Unfortunately, the Ice Castle’s roof collapsed during a heavy 2001 snowstorm.

The space where the Ice Castle was located is now an office building across from Grocery Outlet, whose building was the former location of the Blue Jay movie theater and Rim of the World Unified School District office.