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Exhausted from tracking the blood trail left behind by the “monster grizzly” he wounded up and over a high mountain ridge, the hunter leaned against a quartz ledge to catch his breath.
What Bill Holcomb saw made him forget all about his grizzly. The ledge glimmered in the sunlight with flecks of yellow! Three days later Holcomb and his companion, Cherokee scout Ben Choteau, returned to take hunks of the quartz ledge to a stream where they washed the rock and confirmed their suspicions...there was gold in them ‘thar hills! So began Southern California’s largest gold rush in 1860, and as word got out within weeks hundreds of prospectors had flocked to these mountains in search of fortune.
Few found any wealth, and some, like Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin, actually lost a fortune in search of one. By 1875 most of the miners were gone, leaving behind ramshackle buildings, abandoned mines and tons of dreams. Some of all three remains to this day, and as Big Bear celebrates its gold rush past with Old Miners Days, a trip back in time is as easy as climbing into the car for a trip along the Gold Fever Trail.
It’s a journey that starts at the Big Bear Discovery Center—pick up a free map of the self-guided auto tour that describes the many points of interest—and its a journey mixed with fact and fiction, history and fantasy, just as the gold rush itself was. It’s a scenic three-hour drive that goes back 150 years in time, to the days before the ski slopes and even Big Bear Lake, when a little valley immediately north of today’s Big Bear Valley was the hub of activity...
When Holcomb, who left Iowa in 1850, arrived in the San Bernardino Mountains in November 1859, he was just another frustrated miner who had tried his luck in Northern California camps to no avail. He had heard tales of a small gold discovery in these parts that had sparked his interest, but the pickings were mighty slim where he was camped in the appropriately-named Starvation Flats area of Big Bear Flat, on the south side of today’s Stanfield Cutoff. Holcomb may not have been a great miner, but he was proficient with a rifle and the other starving miners paid him to provide bear meat. It was on one such outing up Polique Canyon that he crossed the ridgeline and saw the beautiful, secluded valley that now bears his name. The first stop on Gold Fever Trail serves up the view he saw just 3.2 miles after departing the Discovery Center. Walk 250 feet from the marker to the famous Pacific Crest Trail, a gold mine for hikers as they walk from the Mexican to Canadian borders, some 2,638 miles. A couple miles down is the tour’s second stop, Last Chance Placer, a good example of the hard work miners undertook in search of an “easy” fortune. The concept is simple—separate gold from sand or gravel with water at a promising site till you come across black sand or “pay dirt,” which is then hauled by horse, burro or on a miner’s back to sluices near a water source, where it’s washed to reveal the gold. Note the leftover mounds called “tailings” and you’ll get an idea of how much dirt had to be processed to find yellow...and sometimes it was never found. Also visited is the gold ore grinder or arrastres, a wheel introduced by Mexican miners that was pulled by beast in repeated circles to crush ore. Slow and tedious to be sure, but more practical than steam-powered engines in water-challenged Holcomb Valley, and at one time there were over a hundred arrastres in operation.
As miners arrived so did civilization, and towns with names like Belleville and Doble to the east of Holcomb Valley soon popped up. The tour visits tastes of these towns, but sometimes provides more questions than answers along the way. Like at Two Gun Bill’s Saloon, where scattered remains of the once famous watering hole, dance hall and bordello still exist. Except that the real saloon was 1.5 miles west of this site on the tour. These remains are of a large cabin that was occupied as late as the 1930’s, still historical to be sure. At Belleville itself a lone cabin denotes the spot of the old mining town that came within two votes of taking the county seat from San Bernardino in the 1860 election. Except that the building wasn’t part of Belleville but was moved to the spot to show the types of structures common to the area 150 years ago. Hard to believe that this beautiful meadow once featured a brewery, “Octagon House” where girls entertained, blacksmith shop and more. Mystery remains part of the Holcomb Valley story. What, for instance, was the Pygmy Cabin that’s visited? With a height of just six feet at the roof peak and a door just four feet tall, it was built for either a very short person or just thrown together quickly to beat an approaching snowstorm. Or perhaps it was just erected as a pseudo-tent so the owner could head to the gold fields. No one knows for sure. More intrigue surrounds Ross’ Grave, of whom little is known except that he was killed while felling a tree. In the rush of getting rich quick, who took the time to bury him, or build a fence around the grave? Then there’s the hangman’s tree, Gold Fever Trail’s fifth marker. Here justice was dealt as unsavory individuals met their maker, and there were plenty of bad guys around. Like “Hellroaring Johnson,” who shot people he lost bets to and was gunned down after trying to fix the Valley’s first election. People who committed atrocities and were caught—many weren’t—dangled from the end of a rope strung on branches from the tree that were then cut off. Whether this is the actual tree or not is subject to some debate; some say the real Hangman’s Tree was near the Belleville Cabin and is now just a stump. Regardless, it’s not hard to look at this Juniper and envision justice in action.
Mines are what most people picture a Gold Rush to be like, and the driving tour concludes by visiting the remains of two: Metzger’s and the Gold Mountain or “Lucky Baldwin” mine. The entrance to the Metzger Mine is reached by following an 800 ft. trail, and the vein miners followed into the underground passage is still visible. The tour concludes at the crumbling wooden structure that comprises what is left of the Gold Mountain mine, where there’s no mystery but plenty of hard luck stories. Call Big Bear Discovery Center at (909) 866-3437.
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