H I S TO RY
Travel Back in Time Big Bear has seen its share of adventures over the years—from a Gold Rush to becoming SoCal’s ski spot.
Big Bear has had many identities over the centuries, starting as homeland to the Indigenous “People of the Pines,” the ancestors of today’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. From Southern Snow Summit acquires Bear California’s Gold Rush Mountain! Together they and a star turn during become Big Bear Mountain Hollywood’s nascent Resort, vastly increasing decades to becoming a the amount of terrain snow resort in the 1920s and available to skiers. setting the stage for pioneering extreme sports in the 1980s, Big Bear continues to evolve and shine.
2002
1855–1879
THE GOLD RUSH
Early settlers discover gold in the Valley in 1855, the first mining operation begins a few years later, and, in 1860, a bear hunter tracks a trail to a creek filled with flakes of gold. Suddenly, Southern California’s largest gold rush is on.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Back in 1845, Benjamin Wilson led a posse into the San Bernardinos in pursuit of ranch-raiding outlaws. Once they reached the mountains’ apex, Wilson and his team found a valley swarming with grizzlies— inspiring the moniker “Big Bear.”
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FROM LEFT: BIG BEAR MOUNTAIN RESORT; SHUTTERSTOCK
SNOWY PARADISE
