by Kathy Hoffman | Mar 22, 2019 | Historical Photo Albums
THE BEAR VALLEY HOTEL – 1888 In 1888, just four years after the rock dam was built that created Big Bear Lake, two local Big Bear ranchers, Gus Knight Jr. and John Metcalf built Big Bear’s first resort hotel. Big Bear village didn’t exist yet, and the only...
by Kathy Hoffman | Mar 22, 2019 | Historical Photo Albums
Before 1915, the Big Bear Village was not much more than a collection of small resort camps. The Big Bear community was centered around the huge Pine Knot Lodge, which was located just south of today’s village. In fact, the local community was known as Pine Knot...
by Kathy Hoffman | Mar 22, 2019 | Historical Photo Albums
By the 1930’s and 40’s, Big Bear Village which was still known as Pine Knot up until 1938, has completed the transformation from a small cluster of camps into an actual village. Compare the first photo in this Big Bear Village Photo Album to the first...
by Kathy Hoffman | Mar 22, 2019 | Mining
VALLEY GOLD COMPANY – 1896 In 1894, about the same time that the Gold Mountain operations at Big Bear Lake were struggling along, another interesting big money venture for extracting gold from the Big Bear area was being carried out by the “Valley Gold Company...
by Kathy Hoffman | Mar 22, 2019 | Mining
In 1860, Bill Holcomb started a Gold Rush that began bringing people into the Big Bear valley in significant numbers for the first time. Within just a few months of his discovery, the once secluded Big Bear/Holcomb valley area had the highest concentration people in...
