The picturesque history and background of the “Rim of the World” area makes one of the most fascinating stories to be found in all of California’s romantic past. In order to obtain a complete picture of historic background of the “Rim of the World” for a moment we will retrace some of the colorful history of the city of San Bernardino. It was the citizens of this city who pioneered and developed this whole mountain area.

In 1810 a party of missionaries, Indian converts, and soldiers were sent out from San Gabriel Mission to establish a station between San Gabriel and the Colorado River. This party came into what is now San Bernardino Valley on May 20th, the feast day of San Bernardino of Sienna, according to the Roman Calendar of Saints, and the valley was named in his honor.

A small mission was established that prospered well until the terrific earthquakes of 1812 and destroyed the buildings and terminated all missionary activities for years.

In 1822 the Guachama ranchita of Indians appealed to the San Gabriel Mission for assistance, and a priest was sent out who helped erect an adobe chapel and aided in the construction of the Mill Creek Zanca, which has been in use ever since. During the turbulent years that followed, there were many Indian battles and frequent massacres throughout the valley.

The downfall of the missions began in 1823 with the passage of the Secularization Act when Mexico came to power. As the missions declined, the land was granted under Mexican laws to private individuals who developed into a class that might be called “Cattle Barons.” The Lugos, Sepulvedas, Yorbas, Isaac Williams, Michael White, and Louis Robidoux were men of this class; and during the “gold rush” days, when meat was at a premium, they were as “flush” as the miners in the north.

It was during the War with Mexico in 1846 that the famed Mormon Battalion made up of five hundred volunteers, started out on one of the longest infantry marches in history. Theirs was a two thousand mile trek across uncharted deserts and mountains of California, by way of Santa Fe and Yuma. They arrived in San Diego in January of 1847, too late to lend much military assistance. Among the officers of the battalion were such men as Jesse Hunter, Andrew Lytle, and Jefferson Hunt, -all of whom later became prominent in the affairs of San Bernardino. When the men of the Mormon Battalion were mustered out of the service a short time after their arrival, a few of them started a chain of events destined to open up a new era for San Bernardino and her mountains.

Jefferson Hunt

Jefferson Hunt may well be called the “Father of San Bernardino County,” and he was the first Mormon fully to appreciate the climactic and agricultural possibilities of Southern California. Following his discharge from the battalion and prior to his return to Utah, he visited much of California from San Diego to the gold fields in the north.

In 1848-49 he led the first wagon trains into Southern California from Salt Lake City by the southern route through the Cajon Pass.

It was from his 1849 caravan that the ill-fated Death Valley party separated. There is no question but what the entire would have reached Los Angeles in safety, if they had not chosen to go against his advice and search for a short cut to the coast.

In March of 1851, shortly after California was admitted to statehood, a party of five hundred Mormons departed from Salt Lake City with an oxen wagon caravan. It was Brigham Young’s plan to establish a colony in Southern California to be used as an outfitting post for overseas missions.

The whole group was under the command of Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Rich, but the party was divided into three groups under the leadership of Captains Hunt, Seeley and Lytle (hence Seeley Flats and Lytle Creek). Three months later, the three groups were camped close to the Cajon Pass and were ready to select a site for their new city. Their first thought was to locate on the hills east of the present city of San Bernardino, thus the name City Creek. The present location of the city was finally chosen because of an abundance of feed for their stock.

They finally purchased, for $7500.00, a thirty five thousand acre tract from San Bernardino Rancho, formerly owned by Antonio Maria Lugo. Then began the Herculean task of laying out ranches, developing water systems, a building a self-sufficient community. In 1852 Colonel Henry Washington, a United States Deputy Surveyor, erected a monument on top of San Bernardino Peak and from it ran the base line from which a future Southern California surveys and subdivisions were made. H. G. Sherwood, who made the original surveys for Salt Lake City, also made the surveys for the city and county of San Bernardino. It was in 1853 that the one mile square town site of the city was laid out in Babylonian style –a miniature Salt Lake City.

As the Mormons began to erect homes and buildings, the demand for lumber increased. For a time the only supply was from a small mill in Mill Creek Canyon that was run by water power. In 1852 it was imperative that a road be built to the larger sources of timber in the mountains to the north of the town.

Photo of tree stumps pre-1900's

Captain Hunt and his men laid out a route past the Hot Springs and up West Twin Creek Canyon, now known as Waterman Canyon. This sixteen mile stretch of road to the crest of the mountains was one of the great public works contributed by the Mormons. It was built in 1852, during May when the men we not so much need in the fields. Every man in the colony turned out; with very meager tools and practically no equipment, they built a road to the top. It followed Waterman Canyon to the steep mountainside a mile and a half below the summit. It climbed this steep slope and crossed the present “high-gear road,” where you see the monument, which was erected in 1932 to these hardy, indomitable pioneers. Unlike so many roads of that period, it was not a toll road, even though the Mormons had put into it a thousand days of hard labor.

In 1935, County Surveyor Harold L. Way and George Beattie retraced the upper and steeper portions of the old Mormon Road to determine percentages of grade. From Crestline down to where the Mormon Road intersects the “high-gear road,” they reported the following grades on selected stretches; for 200 feet –24%; 50 feet –25%; 100 feet –41%; 175 feet –29%; 60 feet –22%; 40 feet –30%; and 300 feet –39%. When we consider that today’s engineers try to keep all mountain roads under a 6% grade, we can well marvel that the Mormons, with their crude oxen teams and wagons, were ever able to haul heavy sawmill equipment up and huge loads of lumber down these steep grades. They used huge brakes but they also but they also locked their wheels, placed a shoe under the wheel to prevent wear and tear, and for added safety dragged a log behind the wagon. Old timers still recall “Drag Camp” at the foot of the grade, where drivers used to cut loose their dragging logs. The old specially built lumber wagons would often haul four thousand feet of lumber in one load on their trips down that precipitous grade.

The Mormon Road gave access to Seeley and Houston Flat (Lake Gregory) areas, which at the time had one of the finest forests in the San Bernardino Mountains. The Seeley Sawmill, erected in 1853, was the first mill of any importance to operate on the mountain crest. It was owned by the Seeley brothers, David and Wellington, and was located at the lower end of the flat, where it was run by waterpower. The water was taken from the creek about where Camp Seeley now stands and was carried by flume to a log-cabin type “penstock.” There was a gate at the bottom where water was released on to an undershot wheel ten feet in diameter that operated a single saw of the vertical type known as a “muley saw.” The capacity of this mill was about twenty-five hundred feet of lumber per day as compared with a sixty-thousand-board-foot capacity in the Brooking’s Mills of half a century later. The Seeley Mill was in operation every summer until 1862, when it was washed away by a big storm.

Camp Seeley

The first steam mill in the San Bernardino Mountains was built at Houston Flat in 1853 by Charles Crisman and was owned at times by Jefferson Hunt, John M. James, Caley and Company, and F. L. Talmadge. It was moved in 1865 to Blue Jay Camp, and later to Pacific Electric Camp, and then onto the meadow that is now covered by Lake Arrowhead. Most of this early timber was used in the San Bernardino area, but later it was hauled into Los Angeles, where top-grade sugar pine sold for $80.00 per thousand feet, delivered.

By 1857 the old Mormon Road into the mountains had become a very busy thoroughfare, but this was also the year in which Brigham Young called all the Faithful who were scattered in various colonies to return to Salt Lake City. Utah was still a territory and Young was having so much difficulty with the Federal authorities that for a time it looked as though there might be an out-and-out clash. Many of the San Bernardino colonists did not agree with Young’s policies, especially polygamy, and a few refused to obey his call. The majority obeyed and sold they had worked so hard to accumulate, at a ruinous sacrifice. Instances are related where an improved ranch was traded for a camping outfit, and in one case a well-located four-room furnished house sold for $40.00.

In paying tribute to the Mormons, we not only credit them with opening the roads into the mountains but also honor them for many more accomplishments. In six short years they had built up a substantial town, with schools, council house, several complete stores, a flour mill, three sawmills, irrigation systems, good roads, and had a large share of thirty-six thousand acres under cultivation. It was years before San Bernardino recovered from the loss of so many of her cooperative and hard-working citizens.

City Creek Road

In the years that followed, new toll roads were built into the mountains to supplement the old Mormon Road. The Devil’s Canyon Road, The Daley Road, and the City Creek Road were all destined to play an important part in the development of the area. As the timber on the lower flats was cut off, new roads were built and the mills were moved to higher ground. In 1873 there were at least four sawmills in the area, producing three million feet of lumber and five hundred thousand shingles per year. In 1882 the big mill owners along the mountains were William La Praix, Tyler Brothers, E. Sommers, Hudson and Taylor, and FrankTalmadge. The whole timbered area from Crestline through Big Bear was destined to come under the woodman’s ax and hand-cross-cut saws. A lumberman today would cringe at the unnecessary destructiveness of those early-day operations; many of the areas looked completely bald when the sawmills moved on to better timber. One of the marvels of nature is evidenced by the way in which these destroyed forests have replaced themselves in the past sixty years.