Those Were The Days: New Green Valley Lake book celebrates 100 years

By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY

Historian

 

This summer is the 100th anniversary of many things, since 1926 was a pivotal year in California history. The Roaring Twenties economy was indeed roaring, as people felt safe going out after the 1919 flu epidemic and buying property on the mountain for vacation use. Route 66 was paved and ready for auto traffic, bringing people to California, and it was the year that the dam to Green Valley Lake was completed and the lake was filled with water.

So, of course, Green Valley added “Lake” to its name.

The idea for the lake came from Green Valley Mac, (Harry McMullen) a back-country fishing and hunting guide, who led visitors into the deep forest. McMullen purchased the Green Valley meadowland after Brookings Lumber Company had clear cut it, as the company was moving to Oregon.

Green Valley Mac suggested building a dam to flood the meadow to create a small lake offering swimming, boating and fishing. He also suggested building cabins, a restaurant and a campground for tourists, so the town wouldn’t fade away since the road to Big Bear was realigned.

In 1925-26 an 8.5-acre lake was built by the Dewitt-Blair Company for $80,000, changing the area’s name to Green Valley Lake. They subdivided the land into vacation retreats and began selling the lots.

In 1928 the lake was stocked with trout and the private ‘Top of the World Club’ was built; the name acknowledging that Green Valley Lake is the highest elevation community in the San Bernardino Mountains.

There is a new book out by local GVL residents Dennis Foster and Sandi Huckaby that is available at the Einer Lilleberg Museum at 33659 Green Valley Lake Road in Green Valley Lake, “Green Valley Lake Centennial 1926-2026.” The museum is open Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m. This $20 book is also available at the Mountain History Museum at 27176 Peninsula Drive in Lake Arrowhead.

The book tells the intriguing story of Green Valley from its wagon toll-road days beginnings in the 1890s through the making of the lake, the saving of the lake by Jim Reid during the 1938 flood and the ensuing century through today. Highlighted are the many colorful personalities that have made Green Valley Lake the unique community it has become today.

Because GVL is tucked away from through traffic, it is a quiet artisan community celebrating Lilleberg and other artists, crafters and writers in the small-town community over the decades. Green Valley Lake is a four-season area, which also had several ski resorts with the first snowboard park where Olympian Shawn White used to train.

Not everyone is aware how deeply a historical area that Green Valley is. Beginning in the 1890s, the original horse-drawn wagon toll road to Big Bear was built following an old burro trail. It was a two-day stage trip on the Bear Valley Wagon Toll Road to get to Big Bear from the San Bernardino Valley. Green Valley was chosen for a rest stop because it was the halfway point on the road to Big Bear. The Bear Valley Wagon Toll Road Company built an 11-room overnight lodging at that toll house in the meadow. The road then continued over the Snow Slide section of road on the north side of the mountain peaks to Big Bear, arriving at Fawnskin on the lake’s north shore. The wagon roadway was closed several winter months of the year due to the heavy snowdrifts covering the road.

That 1894 wagon toll road connected to the City Creek Road at Fredalba where the sawmill was located. This two-day trip was the swiftest way to get to the Big Bear area. The Bear Valley Wagon Toll Road was purchased by San Bernardino County in 1911 for $4000 and made into a free public roadway for wagons, and later autos.

The Snow Slide Road section, because of the snow and limited winter transit, was one of the first sections of the Rim of the World Drive to be replaced with a south-facing road for auto traffic in 1923. That re-routing of the new road, called the Deep Creek Cutoff, completely by-passed Green Valley and the Fawnskin areas on the north shore of Big Bear Lake, when they built a road over the top of the Big Bear Dam sending traffic along the south shore of the lake. Today that new section of highway is known as the Arctic Circle section of Highway 18.

When the 1924 economic disaster hit Green Valley, by diverting all the traffic away from it, this is what encouraged Green Valley Mac to suggest a new attraction and the resort development of Green Valley. Since he already owned the meadow, he believed flooding it would bring new activity, selling vacation cabin property to fishermen and bringing vacationers to the area. Did he strike it rich?

Read Green Valley Lake Centennial by Dennis Foster and Sandi Huckaby to meet the people who created the unique community of Green Valley Lake.