<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Big Bear Lake<\/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 on the desert at Rancho Las Flores<\/a>, on the Mojave River<\/a>.<\/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 lake. They again found the place overrun with bears, and the same 22 soldiers brought in eleven more bears\u2014enough to give them a bear rug apiece as a trophy. It was then that Wilson gave the little body of water the name Bear Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Years later, the name was changed to Baldwin Lake. The name survives, however, in Big Bear Lake, which 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 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 Cajon 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":[215,391],"tags":[963,962,964,967,455,968,750,971,969,966,646,922,965,970,193],"class_list":["post-7889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-historical","tag-baldwin-lake","tag-bear-lake","tag-big-bear-lake","tag-boating","tag-camping","tag-fishing","tag-hiking","tag-nature-trails","tag-outdoor-activities","tag-recreation","tag-san-bernardino-mountains","tag-scenic-views","tag-southern-california-lakes","tag-water-sports","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889","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=7889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7930,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889\/revisions\/7930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digital-desert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7889"}],"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\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Adapted from ~ Pioneer Tales of San Bernardino County \u2013 WPA \u2013 1940.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"