"It's raining cats and dogs!

Starring My Town
salutes

San Bernardino…...

Sunrise	Sunset

….the heart of southern California!

It is a city! ....

….named by Father Francisco Dumetz on May 20.1810,
the feast day of St, Bernardino of Siena, and the land of the Serrano tribe who wintered in the valley and summered in the mountains. In 1842 Mexico ceded the land to Antonio Maria Lugo who grazed great herds of cattle there until statehood was declared in 1851. Then the Mormons came and built roads and sawmills, irrigation systems and homes before departing abruptly for Utah and leaving everything behind. The railroad came in 1883 and the city passed its first charter in 1905. Today it is the 18th largest city in California and home to over 3 million people as part of the Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario Metropolitan Area....known as “The Inland Empire”.

Third Street in 1910	Main Street in 1920
With more cars, Downtown took on a new look!	The first McDonald's built here in 1940!
Santa Fe Depot(now Amtrak) built in 1918
The San Bernardino Court District...	...also known as Arrowhead Plaza.
The bell tower at St. Paul's United Methodist Church and....	....the altar at St. Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church.
City Hall	The new CSU Education Building

It is a county!....

…. the largest in the continental United States, the only California county bordering both Nevada and Arizona and with more acreage than Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode island put together. It reaches from the outskirts of Los Angeles to the Nevada border and the Colorado River.

The Victorville Bridge	The Wig-Wam Motel on Route 66

Calico was a silver mining town in 1881 with over 500 mines, 1200 people and 22 saloons. When the silver boom was over it became a ghost town like many of the mining towns in the west. Walter Knott of Knott Berry Farm fame, rescued the remains, restored or rebuilt the town and donated it to San Bernardino County in 1966. It is now a 480-acre regional park. But, on many a dark night, the old tenants come back to haunt it.


Cima Dome..a volcanic natural landmark

It is a national forest!....

….covering more than 800, 000 acres with five wilderness areas…San Gorgonia, Cucamonga, San Jacinto, Santa Rosa and Bighorn Mountain. It also has its share of forest fires. In the Esperanza fire of November 26, 2006, the five-member crew of Alandale Forest Fire Station’s Engine 57 was killed near Beaumont.

The "Old Fire" October 25th, 2003	Fighting fire on the ground
Fighting fire by air	a fatal fire
And, from a mountain trail...	...a deer stands watch.

It is a mountain range!....

….bounded by the Mojave Desert, Cajun Pass, Banning Pass and the San Andreas Fault . Most of this range is located in San Bernardino National Forest with elevations from 19, 259 feet (Dobbs Peak) to 11,502 feet (San Gorgonia). It also has four of the most popular vacation spots in southern California….Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear Lake, Running Springs and Crestline.

After the snow is gone...	...it is time for spring!
Big Bear Lake	A chalet at Lake Arrowhead

…and it is where they have made a lot of movies!

Over 350 movies or television shows had location sites

in the San Bernardino National Forest, the mountains there or Big Bear Lake. Here are some of them….

The Birth of a Nation 1915	"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" 1937 Sylvia Sidney, Fred MacMurray and Henry Fonda
"Brigham Young" 1940 Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell	"Now, Voyager" 1942 Bette Davis and Paul Henreid
"Shane" 1953 with Alan Ladd	"Old Yeller" 1957 with Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker and Jeff York
"Bonanza" series 1959 Lorne Green	"City of Angels" 1998 Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan