A new activity

We joined the Big Bear Valley Historical Society earlier this spring, and my Dad and I decided to volunteer as docents at the museum. This was opening weekend, and we had a lovely time chatting with guests. Our valley has lots of Wild West history -- the area was settled in the 1800s because gold was discovered up in the nearby canyons. After an era of mining, ranching and logging, real roads were built up from the flatlands and the town grew.

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This is "my" cabin -- Cienega Largo, a primitive one-room cabin. It was built in 1875 as a hunting lodge/line shack way back up in the mountains. In the mid 1900s, it was donated and relocated log by log down here to the valley.

It contains an eclectic assortment of very old homestead-type furnishings and tools.

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My Dad's cabin is an old bunkhouse, built in the early 1900s out at the Shay Ranch for the cowboys. It's divided into four rooms: in addition to the bunkroom and kitchen displays, an old barbershop is set up in one of the rooms, and a saloon/poker game in the other one.

Howdy, pardner! Care for a sasparilla?

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