Bell Mountain, California

Last updated

Bell Mountain is an unincorporated community in the Victor Valley region of the Mojave Desert, within San Bernardino County, southern California.

It is north of Apple Valley, east of Interstate 15, and 8 miles (13 km) northeast of Victorville. [1] The town lies at 3,082 feet above sea level[ citation needed ] on Dale Evans Parkway.

A post office was established in the community in 1953 but it was discontinued three years later. [1]

History

The rural community of Bell Mountain was founded in 1904 when a group of black homesteaders from Los Angeles began settling on government land around Victorville, California. Most of the Bell Mountain homesteaders were southerners who had migrated west in stages during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, eventually arriving in California and at Bell Mountain. Their goal was to become landowners and to create a prosperous, “all-black” agricultural community in the desert outskirts of Los Angeles. These homesteaders included Nolie and Lela Murray, notable entrepreneurs from the Los Angeles black community who would go on to establish Murray's Dude Ranch at Bell Mountain in the 1930s. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Bernardino County, California</span> County in southern California, United States

San Bernardino County, officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181,654, making it the fifth-most populous county in California and the 14th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is San Bernardino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelanto, California</span> Incorporated city in the state of California, United States

Adelanto is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is approximately 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Victorville in the Victor Valley area of the Mojave Desert, in the northern region of the Inland Empire. The population was 38,046 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Valley, California</span> City in California, United States

Apple Valley is an incorporated town in the Victor Valley of San Bernardino County, in the U.S. state of California. Its population was 75,791 as of the 2020 United States Census. The town is east of and adjoining to the neighboring cities of Victorville and Hesperia, 35 miles (56 km) south of Barstow, and 49 miles (79 km) north of San Bernardino through the Cajon Pass. It was incorporated on November 14, 1988, and is one of the 22 incorporated municipalities in California that use "town" in their names instead of "city".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorville, California</span> City in California, United States

Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mojave River</span> River in California, United States

The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, except for the headwaters and several bedrock gorges in the lower reaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cajon Pass</span> Mountain pass in Southern California

Cajon Pass is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gabriel Mountains to the west in Southern California. Created by the movements of the San Andreas Fault, it has an elevation of 3,777 ft (1,151 m). Located in the Mojave Desert, the pass is an important link from the Greater San Bernardino Area to the Victor Valley, and northeast to Las Vegas. The Cajon Pass area is on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Phelan is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in San Bernardino County, California, in the Victor Valley of the Mojave Desert, north of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population was 14,304 in the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucerne Valley, California</span> Census-designated place in California, USA

Lucerne Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) and valley landform in the southern Mojave Desert, in western San Bernardino County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Gabriel Valley Council</span>

Located in Los Angeles County, California's San Gabriel Valley, the Boy Scouts of America's San Gabriel Valley Council (#40) was one of five councils serving Los Angeles County. It was headquartered in Pasadena.

Oro Grande is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, United States. It lies on the city boundary of Victorville and Adelanto. It is at 3,000 feet (910 m) elevation in Victor Valley north of the San Bernardino mountain range. It is located on old Route 66 near Interstate 15 between Victorville and Barstow. The ZIP code is 92368 and the community is inside area codes 442 and 760. Less than 1,000 residents live in the unincorporated area.

Mojave Heights is an unincorporated community in the Victor Valley of the Mojave Desert, within San Bernardino County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino</span> Latin Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction in California, USA

The Diocese of San Bernardino is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, in Southern California in the United States. Erected by Pope Paul VI on July 14, 1978, its jurisdiction extends over San Bernardino and Riverside counties. As of 2021, the diocese has 92 parishes and 12 missions in its territory. Its cathedral is Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in San Bernardino.

California's 23rd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California. The district is represented in the 118th United States Congress by Jay Obernolte.

Desert Valley Hospital (DVH) is an 148-bed osteopathic acute care facility in the city of Victorville, San Bernardino County, California. It serves the Victor Valley region of the south−central Mojave Desert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Desert (California)</span> Geographic area of southern California

High Desert is a vernacular region with non-discrete boundaries applying to areas of the western Mojave Desert in southern California. The "High Desert" region is an area that generally is situated between 2,000 feet (610 m) and 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in elevation, and located just north of the San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and Little San Bernardino Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murray's Dude Ranch</span>

Murray's Ranch, sometimes called the Overall Wearing Dude Ranch, was a guest ranch in Bell Mountain, California from the 1920s until the 1960s. The ranch was located at the northwest corner of Waalew Road and Dale Evans Parkway in Apple Valley, just outside the city limits of Victorville. It was owned by African Americans and catered primarily to an African American clientele. It also served as the set for a number of "all-black cast" western movies including groundbreaking Western musical Harlem on the Prairie (1937).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaparral High School (Phelan, California)</span> High school in Phelan, California, United States

Chaparral High School is a public high school in the community of Phelan in the Victor Valley of the Mojave Desert, located in San Bernardino County, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorville Army Airfield auxiliary fields</span> US WWII airfield

Victorville Army Airfield auxiliary fields were four airfields used during World War II to support the Victorville Army Airfield pilot training near Victorville, California, and Adelanto, California. After the war the Victorville Army Airfield was renamed George Air Force Base on January 13, 1948. The airfields were built in 1941 by the United States Army Air Corps just before the war. Victorville Army Airfield covered 2,200-acre in the Mojave Desert. The US Army held a groundbreaking ceremony on 12 July 1941. The base, called Victorville Army Flying School, was ready to use before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Army built four runways in a triangle configuration, with one runway down the middle of the triangle. Seven hangars were built to support operation. On April 23, 1943, the base was renamed Victorville Army Airfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lela Murray</span>

Lela Murray was a prominent black businesswoman, community leader, and advocate for civil rights in Los Angeles during the first half of the 20th century. She co-founded Murray's Ranch, billed by the press as "the only Negro dude ranch in the world," in Bell Mountain, California, providing a place of recreation and leisure to people of color during a period of racial segregation and anti-black sentiment in the United States.

References

  1. 1 2 Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Quill Driver Books. p. 1394. ISBN   978-1-884995-14-9.
  2. Thornton, Jennifer (2018). Remembering Bell Mountain: African American Landownership and Leisure in California's High Desert During the Jim Crow Era. University of California Riverside: ProQuest LLC.

34°37′27″N117°12′25″W / 34.62417°N 117.20694°W / 34.62417; -117.20694