History

Logging the San Bernardinos

Big Bear Lake is not a natural lake. It was created in 1885, when a man by the name of Frank Elwood Brown constructed a thin rock dam across the narrow gorge at the west end of Big Bear Valley.

Brown was a Redlands farmer. He had migrated to Southern California after graduating from Yale in 1876. He and his partner, Edward Judson, found the climate and red soil conditions at the east end of the San Bernardino valley perfect for citrus farming. In 1881, they purchased 4,000 acres and incorporated the City of Redlands.

Brown spent the next two years on horseback, searching throughout the San Bernardino Mountains for the ideal location for a reservoir. He needed a reliable source of water to supply the thirsty citrus farms in Redlands.

On a cold crisp May morning in 1883, with a light snow gently falling, Frank Brown road into Big Bear Valley. Cold and tired, he continued his ride through the lush meadows and pine forests until he reached the narrow gorge at the west end of the valley. When he saw this gorge, Frank Brown new his search was over.

Immediately, Brown returned to Redlands and for $500, obtained an exclusive 20-day option to purchase the future lake site. Within those busy twenty days, he made several trips back to Big Bear with investors. He organized the Bear Valley Land & Water Company and raised an additional $33,000 in operating capital. By July of 1883, workers were cutting into the bedrock for the dam's foundation.

The construction of the rock dam was both unique and controversial. It was designed as a thin arch dam, 52 feet high, 20 wide at the bottom and tapering to only 3 feet wide at the top. There was a very real concern whether or not such a narrow structure could sustain the enormous pressure of a five-mile long lake. It was made entirely out of three foot rock blocks cut from the surrounding hillside with little cement used to hold the blocks together. The strength of the dam would come from the shape of the arch.

Without the use of explosives or power tools, the workers cut granite blocks from the hillside, each block weighing three to five tons. The dam was about fifteen feet high when the workers went home for the winter because of early snowstorms. That winter of 1883 / 1884, was a particularly heavy winter for snowfall. When Brown road back into Big Bear that spring, he saw water pouring over the partially constructed dam. The heavy winter proved to be an asset for the workmen. After cutting the rock blocks, they could now put them on rafts and float them over to the dam on the partially filled lake. By the fall of 1884, the dam was finished except for the cap across the top. The workers went home for the winter.

When they came back in the spring, after another heavy winter, they found the dam holding solid with a new 5 mile long lake sitting in the valley where pine trees and green meadows had been the year before. In just two years, at a cost of $75,000, Frank Brown had created the largest manmade lake in the world. What Frank didn't realize was that he had also created a tourist attraction.

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