In 1845, Benjamin Davis Wilson�the future first mayor of Los Angeles and the grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton�led a 20-man posse into the San Bernardino Mountains in search of Native American raiding parties that had been attacking Riverside ranches. But what they found in a particular high-altitude valley were, instead, large and furry. Wilson�s men soon roped 11 bears, bringing the creatures into camp, and the valley the Serrano Indians knew as Yuhaviat, or �Pine Place,� received a new map designation. Wilson named a nearby body of water Big Bear Lake (now Baldwin Lake, with the present-day, man-made lake co-opting the bruin moniker). Today, at elevations between 6,000 and 9,000 feet, the city of Big Bear Lake is an hour and a half from Los Angeles and a million miles from the rat race, where hiking, sports, and the absence of exertion thrive in a vacation atmosphere.
In 1845, Benjamin Davis Wilson�the future first mayor of Los Angeles and the grandfather of Gen. George S. Patton�led a 20-man posse into the San Bernardino Mountains in search of Native American raiding parties that had been attacking Riverside ranches. But what they found in a particular high-altitude valley were, instead, large and furry. Wilson�s men soon roped 11 bears, bringing the creatures into camp, and the valley the Serrano Indians knew as Yuhaviat, or �Pine Place,� received a new map designation. Wilson named a nearby body of water Big Bear Lake (now Baldwin Lake, with the present-day, man-made lake co-opting the bruin moniker). Today, at elevations between 6,000 and 9,000 feet, the city of Big Bear Lake is an hour and a half from Los Angeles and a million miles from the rat race, where hiking, sports, and the absence of exertion thrive in a vacation atmosphere.