The Serrano Indians first occupied big Bear Valley approximately 3,000 year ago. In 1845, while in pursuit of Indians, Benjamin D. Wilson discovered and named it Bear Valley, because "the place was alive with grizzly bears!"

In 1862, a hunter called William Holcomb was hunting bear and discovered gold instead. What followed was Southern California's largest gold rush. With all those miners came roads, buildings and a whole new community sprang up in Big Bear Valley.

Big Bears first dam was completed in 1884. Frank E. Brown, a young Yale engineer, designed, financed and built the Bear Valley Dam. It was a 45ft dam, constructed of native rock and was held together by cement that came from England. It was considered the eighth wonder of the world due to the thin structure that did not collapse from water pressure.

This dam created Big Bear Lake, the largest man made lake in the world, at the time it was over 5 miles long. The Valleys first hotel, Bear Valley Hotel was completed in 1888. From here, it carried on growing and in 1949 the first ski resort opened and Big Bear Lake soon became Southern California's favourite Mountain Getaway.

Hollywood too has a history in Big Bear. Since filming of the 'The Call' in 1914, so many motion pictures have been shot in Big Bear Valley that it has been called 'Hollywood's back lot'. Dr. Dolittle, Magnolia and Bug Buster are some of the memorable films that have been shot on location.

Although the grizzlies have gone, Big Bear still has plenty of life!