The Big Bear Historical Museum first opened to the public in 1982. It is located in Big Bear City just off of Greenway. The Big Bear Museum is the most visible result of the hard working volunteer members of the Big Bear Valley Historical Society, who have been… In the early 1880’s, Big Bear Village, Fawnskin, and Big Bear City didn’t exist. The only community in Big Bear Valley was a little mining town at the north/east end of Baldwin Lake called Baird’s town, and the only two roads into the valley were actually… As a result, Fawnskin’s rapid development slowed to a crawl, and all of the early resorts that once dotted the north shore of the lake, except for one, eventually disappeared into history. Meanwhile, new development along the south side of the lake escalated, and has… BIG BEAR’S NATURAL LAKE Big Bear lake is a man made lake. All of the published history to date, including this author’s book Vanishing Big Bear, tells us that Big Bear Lake was originally created when a Redlands farmer by the name of Frank Brown built a… The story of our multi arch dam dates back to 1885, when a Redlands farmer by the name of Frank Brown built a rock dam at Big Bear which created the lake that we have today. This original rock dam still exists today, about 50 yards upstream from our current dam, and…