The most common route to
Big Bear Lake, the highway 18 and Arctic Circle, was
built in the mid
1920’s. Workers were housed in a little known lodge
built below the Dam on the south side of the highway. The
Bear Lake Lodge also housed a Post Office from 1924 until
1931 with George Ringo as the owner/postmaster. With the
completion of the Arctic Circle, the focus turned to the
North Shore of the Lake and the little town of Fawnskin.
Upon completion of the Arctic Circle, a bridge was built
across the lake and dam, allowing tourists to drive around
the lake.
Both sides of the lake saw increased development, especially
during the 1920’s. There were many “camps” built
on the north shore. They included Good Luck Lighthouse,
Moon Camp, Lemke, Gray’s, Cluster Pines, Juniper
and Stanfield’s Camp. The south shore also saw development
with Holloway’s, Stillwell’s, Chad’s,
Gordon’s, Lowe’s, Bluff Lake, Andrew’s,
Eureka, Andrew’s, Bartlett’s, Barney’s,
Boulder Bay, Carter’s, Lunde’s and Case’s.
Map
of Big Bear Cabins
Holloway's Camp
As
more tourists discovered Big Bear Lake, there was the
desire for ownership in the mountains. As Los Angeles
became
more of a city, successful businessmen sought a refuge
from the grind of city life. In Big Bear, they could
embrace the rustic, but that didn’t mean they
wanted their accommodations to be rustic. Guy Maltby,
a former boat
builder from Michigan, had the perfect solution. Hired
by the business interest that developed the Peter Pan
Woodland Club, he built “cabins” on the
land that members purchased as part of the club. Maltby
knew that people
wanted the look of a rustic cabin, without the headaches.
So he used 5/4 exterior log siding that looked like logs,
but allowed for the infrastructure of a house, including
interior plumbing and electrical, as well as minimal
insulation (as Big Bear was still a mostly summer destination
when
he started building) The one and two bedroom cabins were
richly decorated with custom furnishings built by Maltby’s
own factory to give the ambiance of a hunting lodge.
Some of the hallmarks of Maltby’s designs include
large porches, huge rock fireplaces using local rock
and custom
cast iron lighting fixtures.
Maltby's Bear Valley Lumber Company, wood milled
for Big Bear Cabins
Maltby’s
own sawmill, the Bear Valley Milling and Lumber Company,
milled the log siding for the cabins.
The mill was located on Big Bear Boulevard and Sawmill
Road in Big Bear City in 1928. They had six architects
who designed hundreds of cabins.
Maltby’s masterpiece, the Peter Pan Woodland Club,
was a world-class stone lodge with amenities rivaling
the finest lodges in Europe. There was a library, a lounge,
game rooms, a veranda extending the length of the building,
a café, an oval swimming pool, a golf course,
a theatre, and a spa with hot and cold healing radium
water.
World Class Peter Pan Woodland Club
There
are many historic homes still in the valley, from lodges
with vertical bark clad siding to tiny miner’s
cabins. If you are interested in more information about
Big Bear’s mountain architecture, please visit
the museum in Big Bear City.
next
|Big
Bear Cabins| |Camps|
|Maltby's Cabins||Photos| |
