Old Bear Valley Dam

Frank Elwood Brown was a citrus farmer who needed water in the valley below, so in 1884 he built a single granite arch across this meadow. Engineers said it would not stand. It stood, they called it the eighth wonder of the world, and the reservoir behind it drowned some nine thousand trees to become briefly the largest artificial lake anywhere. In 1912 a higher dam went up two hundred feet west. Brown's arch is now underwater itself, most of the year.

What the plaque says

In 1884 Frank Brown built an unusual dam here to supply irrigation water for the Redlands area. The single-arch granite dam formed Big Bear Lake, then the world's largest man-made lake. Engineers claimed the dam would not hold, and declared it "The Eighth Wonder of the World" when it did. The old dam is usually underwater because of the 20-foot higher dam built 200 feet west in 1912.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bear Valley Dam — steps away
  Big Bear Lake is an irrigation reservoir first, and in 1977 the town had to buy the dam to keep water in its own view.
• Big Bear Solar Observatory — 3.3 mi
  A reservoir dug for orange groves turned out to be one of the steadiest places on the continent to look at the sun.
• Keller Peak Fire Lookout — 5.3 mi
  For ninety-eight years it watched this forest for smoke. In September 2024 a fire took it, and the steel frame is what is left.
• Baldwin Lake Ecological Reserve — 9.0 mi
  Pebble plains occur in this valley and nowhere else on earth, and the flowers on them are small enough that you have to lie down.

More markers nearby

• Holcomb Valley — 7.7 mi
• Daley Toll Road Monument — 14 mi
• Chimney Rock — 14 mi
• The Zanja — 17 mi