The Redlands Area Historical Society, Inc.
Program Announcement
“The San Bernardino Mountains in the 1860’s”
Monday, April 22, 2024
7:00 p.m.
The Contemporary Club
173 S. Eureka Street, Redlands
The Redlands Area Historical Society will host four Big Bear historians at our April 22, 2024 program at 7:00 p.m. at the Contemporary Club House. Richard Graham, Mark Durban, Anne Roark and Jonni Vindiola have researched “How the town of Bellville lost out on the vote to change the county seat from San Bernardino” in the 1860 election. The long held belief presents an interesting research delima requiring time to search both county and State of California records. The program is entertaining as the presenters show the web they followed with a Power Point presentation.
Richard Graham since retiring from the automotile industry has conducted many personal interviews and researched Big Bear history through newspaper searches and has presented programs on prohibition and festival events in Big Bear. Graham will present the basic legend for the program.
Mark Durban has been a resident of Big Bear since 1989 and worked for the fire department. That career led him to collect fire photos, broshures, post cards and photographs of early Big Bear. Durban authored “The Big Bear Lake Photo Album” book. His material will discuss how the legend concerning the county seat change started.
Anne Roark graduated from Big Bear High School. Her family began interviewing valley pioneers in the 1960s. Roark gathered the family research and has published a series of books called “When Big Bear Was Wild and Woolly.” She is now on volume four.
Jonni Vindiola is related to one of the first private boat landing operation owners on Big Bear Lake and the late San Bernardino County Sheriff, Floyd Tidwell. Vindiola is the current curator of the Big Bear Museum. She will show the political issues in Southern California in the 1860s and how they influenced a movement to change the county seat.
Graham will end the presentation discussing the “War of the Rebellion” documentation of Holcomb Valley involvement in the Civil War.
Historical Society programs are free and open to the general public. To register to attend the meeting via Zoom please go to the following link: www.rahs.org/calendar
