Starvation Flats

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Starvation Flats is an area in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear Lake, California. It was originally a settlement of the Native American Serrano people for thousands of years. [1]

San Bernardino Mountains mountain range in Southern California

The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at 11,489 feet (3,502 m) at San Gorgonio Mountain – the tallest peak in all of Southern California. The San Bernardinos form a significant region of wilderness and are popular for hiking and skiing.

Big Bear Lake, California City in California, United States

Big Bear Lake is a small city in San Bernardino County, California, located in the San Bernardino Mountains along the south shore of Big Bear Lake, and surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest. The city is located about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of the city of San Bernardino, and immediately west of the unincorporated town of Big Bear City. The population was approximately 5,019 at the 2010 census, down from 5,438 at the 2000 census. However, since it is a popular year-round resort destination, the actual number of people staying in or visiting the greater Big Bear Valley area regularly surges to over 100,000 during many weekends of the year.

Serrano people Native American people of California

The Serrano are an indigenous people of California. They use the autonyms of Taaqtam, meaning "people"; Maarenga'yam, "people from Morongo"; and Yuhaviatam, "people of the pines." Today the Maarenga'yam are enrolled in the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and the Yuhaviatam are enrolled in the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Additionally, some Serrano people are enrolled in the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians.

Contents

History

Starvation Flats was an open mountain plain that with occasional grizzly bears. In 1845, Don Benito Wilson and 22 other men rode into the area in search of rustlers, but found only bears. In the years following, homesteaders came into the region to stake their claims. However, due to the poor soil and continuously bad crops, they found continuous trouble living there.

Grizzly bear subspecies of mammal

The grizzly bear is a large population of the brown bear inhabiting North America. Scientists generally do not use the name grizzly bear but call it the North American brown bear.

Eventually, they enlisted William F. Holcomb, who was widely known as "the best sharpshooter west of the Mississippi", to exterminate the grizzly bears. He was successful in his extermination, and so creating safety for the new homesteaders. He eventually went on to discover gold and found Holcomb Valley. [2]

William Francis "Grizzly Bill" Holcomb, was an American prospector and the first to discover gold in the region which became known as Holcomb Valley, near present-day Big Bear Lake, California. Holcomb Valley had the most gold of any Southern California field. The boomtown of Belleville grew up there and for a time was the third or fourth largest in Southern California. Holcomb was the first justice of the peace in Belleville and later was elected to county offices.

Mississippi River largest river system in North America

The Mississippi River is the largest river of the United States and the chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Holcomb Valley

Holcomb Valley, located in the San Bernardino Mountains about five miles north of Big Bear Lake, was the site of the most gold mines in Southern California. It was named after William F. Holcomb, who found gold there in 1860. That year started the largest gold rush in the Southern California region. The boomtown of Belleville grew up near there and flourished for about ten years before being abandoned. The site is now registered as California Historical Landmark #619.

See also

Photos tagged with "holcombvalley" at Flickr

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References

Coordinates: 34°18′10″N116°53′46″W / 34.3028°N 116.8960°W / 34.3028; -116.8960

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.