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|
|
