Rim of the World Highway Turns 100!

Release Date: Jul 13, 2015

San Bernardino, Calif., July 13, 2015 – The Rim of the World Highway celebrates its 100 year anniversary this week.  Join the Rim of the World Historical Society and the US Forest Service at Baylis Picnic Area on Saturday at 9:00 A.M.

One hundred years ago, the Rim of the World road was dedicated by Dr. John N. Baylis and 120 others at a party was held in the South Park of John Baylis’ Pine Crest Resort and a monument was dedicated, which has graced the side of the highway for the past 100 years. It was restored about ten years ago by the historical society and moved to Baylis Park from its previous location, just west of Rim Forest.

To celebrate this momentous turning point in mountain history, The Rim of the World Historical Society will be hosting “Cruising the Rim of the World” and invites any members of the public that want to, to join with them at any point along the route.   ‘The Cruise’ begins at 9:00 A.M. on Saturday, July 18 at Baylis Park with a rededication ceremony of the restored monument at Baylis Park.   

After the rededication, a caravan of vehicles led by the Crestline Bus, the San Bernardino National Forest antique car and the Crest Forest Fire engine will cruise along the highway, stopping at Rim High School, and Heaps Peaks Arboretum and ends at Green Valley Lake’s Lilleberg Museum and Community Center.

The Rim of the World Road was the triumph of both engineering and road building improvements and signified the opening of the mountain to motorized transportation. Up until this time (After 1911) automobiles had been allowed on some of the dirt, former logging roads only during limited days and hours.

The Rim of the World Drive was 101 miles long and began in downtown San Bernardino and came up along the former Arrowhead Reservoir Company Road through Waterman Canyon. It continued along the crest of the mountain along the current Crest Forest Road and then up the route past the Squirrel Inn and through Pine Crest’s South Park to Rim Forest and along the rim through Sky Forest and continued east to Hunsaker Flats, where it joined with the former Bear Valley Toll Road that went through Green Valley along the north side of the crest along Snowslide Road to Fawnskin and to Big Bear.

From Big Bear, it came down the steep Clark’s Grade (which washed out almost immediately), joining the route of current Highway 38 and into Mentone and Redlands, returning to downtown San Bernardino. The route has been realigned several times and modernized during the past 100 years, and even paved in the 1930s.

For more information please contact Rhea-Frances Tetley at (909) 338-3557.

About the U.S. Forest Service:

The mission of the US Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. The agency manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world. Public lands the US Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone. Those same lands provide 20 percent of the nation's clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year. The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the United States, of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live.  Learn more at http://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf

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