![\"\"](\"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/600-grizzlybear3-fotor-2024010919486-WF.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of the soldiers had been vaqueros. They formed in pairs and drew reatas, each pair attacking a bear. One looped a rope around the bear\u2019s neck; his companion roped the same bear by a hind foot. Then, the men drew apart to stretch the rope taut and hold the bear a prisoner. They bagged and skinned eleven bears, stretched their hides, and continued across the mountains to join the rest of the command in the desert at\u00a0Rancho Las Flores<\/a><\/em> on the\u00a0Mojave River<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, the reunited party engaged Indians in a fight, after which Wilson and his 22 vaquero-troopers returned home by the way of the lake. They again found the place overrun with bears, and the same 22 soldiers brought in eleven more bears\u2013 enough to give them a bear rug apiece as a trophy. Then, Wilson named Bear Lake to the little body of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Years later, the name was changed to Baldwin Lake. The name survives, however, in\u00a0Big Bear Lake,\u00a0which was created at the site of the Talmadge Ranch in 1884 when a dam was built to provide a constant water supply for the Redlands District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the summer of 1845, Benjamin D Wilson, who owned part of the interest in the Jurupa Rancho, the site of the present city of Riverside, led a troop of Calvary in search of cattle rustlers. Setting out from San Bernardino Valley, he divided his command. Most of the men he sent through\u00a0Cajon Pass, keeping … Continue reading “Bear Lake, Baldwin Lake, and Big Bear Lake”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[297,296],"class_list":["post-4230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-bear-valley","tag-grizzly-bear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4231,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions\/4231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
adapted from ~ Pioneer Tales of San Bernardino County \u2013 WPA \u2013 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nMost of the soldiers had been vaqueros. They formed in pairs and drew reatas, each pair attacking a bear. One looped a rope around the bear\u2019s neck; his companion roped the same bear by a hind foot. Then, the men drew apart to stretch the rope taut and hold the bear a prisoner. They bagged and skinned eleven bears, stretched their hides, and continued across the mountains to join the rest of the command in the desert at\u00a0Rancho Las Flores<\/a><\/em> on the\u00a0Mojave River<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHere, the reunited party engaged Indians in a fight, after which Wilson and his 22 vaquero-troopers returned home by the way of the lake. They again found the place overrun with bears, and the same 22 soldiers brought in eleven more bears\u2013 enough to give them a bear rug apiece as a trophy. Then, Wilson named Bear Lake to the little body of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYears later, the name was changed to Baldwin Lake. The name survives, however, in\u00a0Big Bear Lake,\u00a0which was created at the site of the Talmadge Ranch in 1884 when a dam was built to provide a constant water supply for the Redlands District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2013adapted from ~ Pioneer Tales of San Bernardino County \u2013 WPA \u2013 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the summer of 1845, Benjamin D Wilson, who owned part of the interest in the Jurupa Rancho, the site of the present city of Riverside, led a troop of Calvary in search of cattle rustlers. Setting out from San Bernardino Valley, he divided his command. Most of the men he sent through\u00a0Cajon Pass, keeping … Continue reading “Bear Lake, Baldwin Lake, and Big Bear Lake”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[297,296],"class_list":["post-4230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-bear-valley","tag-grizzly-bear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4231,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions\/4231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/desertgazette.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/599-big-bear-5450.jpg\"){kind=link}