Lake Gregory

 

Businessman realizes idea for public lake
Jennifer M. Dobbs, Special to The Sun

When the water fountains once again shoot high into the air, everybody knows that Lake Gregory is coming out of its winter hibernation.

In April, fishermen from all parts of California and beyond show up with their poles in one hand, licenses in the other, ready to hop into a rowboat or floattube and catch some trout.

On Memorial Day, the lake kicks into full season. Swimmers, paddle boarders and water bikers dot the surface. The screams of those on the water slide can be heard all the way at the grocery store.

More than 270,000 people visit Lake Gregory for recreation during the summer months annually. Even more come to the boathouse and the lake's shore to fish.

One has to wonder if back in the early 1850s when Charles Crimson and his son, George, came upon that land, heavily forested with cedars and sugar pines, if they could have imagined a recreational lake in what was then a simple piece of earth known as James Flat.

Of course, Crimson's interests were not invested in recreation. He was looking at the land for the trees.

In his 1989 book, "The San Bernardinos," author John Robinson wrote that Crimson brought a steam mill to the area in 1853 after establishing his first steam sawmill in Waterman Canyon the year prior. Transportation of the mill was made possible by the newly constructed Mormon Road, allowing travel from San Bernardino through Waterman Canyon up to the mountain's crest.

The area became busy with the lumber mills, including the Salamander Mill at what is now the east end of Lake Gregory.

Daniel Huston (often misspelled as Houston) operated the twice-burned and rebuilt Salamander Mill, and the name of James Flat was changed to Huston Flat. A nearby creek is known as Huston Creek.

In 1875, Huston was mauled by a grizzly. Though he recovered, he never again milled lumber.

In the early 1900s, a few box companies popped up, making crates for citrus. The San Bernardino Lumber and Box Co. was located near Huston Flat in what is now Valley of the Moon, owned by lumberman Henry Guernsey and a Redlands orange packer named Arthur Gregory.

Robinson wrote that Gregory was "one of the few lumbermen who made real money from mountain timber cutting."

He quoted historian Pauliena LaFuze from her book "Saga of the San Bernardinos," where she described Gregory as a man who "started the San Bernardino Lumber and Box Company with Guernsey and (another man ), then crowded them out. He bought out all those late-starting Sawpit mills or contracted all the footage they could cut. His holdings swept right up through Huston Flat to the apple orchard country. His main business was getting boxes in which to pack his Redlands oranges, but he was never averse to making a buck."

Gregory and A.G. Hamilton subdivided and sold off Valley of the Moon, land just east of Huston Flat, where they built the precursor to Lake Gregory-Moon Lake.

The first version of the private beachfront San Moritz Club w as built on the shore of Moon Lake in 1926, named Arrowhead Valley Club Lodge.

But Gregory had bigger ideas for Crestline.

In the years of the Depression, the businessman developed a plan to put a lake on Huston Flat. In an article written for the San Bernardino Daily Sun in 1937, reprinted in the 1995 publication What's Cookin' in Crestline, James L. King, attorney for the Crest Forest County Water District chronicled the events surrounding the lake's beginnings.

He wrote about a plan laid out 30 to 40 years before, during the time Lake Arrowhead was under construction, for a lake at Huston Flat. And though surveys and plans were completed, "unexpected circumstances arose and prevented further development of the idea at that time."

King wrote that in 1935 Gregory became interested in developing the lake at Huston Flat and presented his idea to locals and businessmen.

"Realizing the need and value of such a development in that part of the mountains, as a water supply and as a public recreational facility, the idea was immediately accepted," he wrote.

Robinson's account differs.

"Gregory faced formidable opposition at first, both from property owners in the Crestline region who feared establishment of a lake taxation district would excessively raise their taxes, and from desert water interests who were afraid that the construction of a dam at Huston Flat would deprive them of their rightful share of water."

Gregory and his land co-owner, Bess Cathcart, donated the land for the lake and dam. With county and federal support, the project moved forward. The Crest Forest County Water District was formed with Gregory as its president, and Huston Flat was cleared of trees that same year.

The 75-foot-tall dam was built with Works Progress Administration labor between 1936 and 1938. Total cost for the progress, according to King, was $225,000, with about $160,000 coming from the federal government and the remainder funded by the water district.

"A strip of land 175 feet in width around the entire lake has been reserved as a public recreation grounds. The lake will be for the use of the public, subject to proper regulation," King wrote.

Almost immediately following the completion of the dam, a record-setting storm dropping more than 34 inches of rain filled the lake over 72 hours.

Ranches at the bottom of the spillway that had originally opposed the project were spared flooding because of the dam.

The lake was completed in January 1939 with construction of a road over the dam.

In those early days, visitors to the lake drove their cars right up to the sand and parked. Sailboats, pedalos and paddleboards were available for water play. Later, the lake for a limited time had two passenger boats.

From 1948 to 1972, Lake Gregory was a secondary water source for the Crestline area.

According to Crestline Village Water General Manager Norm Hunt, raw lake water was purchased and treated to supplement the primary well water.

"There were concerns about drawing the lake down and the effect it would have on the recreational aspects of the lake. The state (Department of Health Services) didn't like the lake as a source of drinking water. They preferred we use (the Crestline-Lake Arrowhead Water Agency formed in the mid-1960s) to deliver water instead."

Meanwhile, Club San Moritz was still active on Moon Lake until 1950, when it burned under mysterious circumstances. In the early 1960s, mosquito problems resulted in the draining of Moon Lake. Today, the property is home to Lake Gregory Community Church and its parking lot, though the rock pillars of the lodge remain.

The new Club San Moritz was built in 1950 on the southeast shore of Lake Gregory. It was a members-only club for property owners in the development there.

Folks still talk of the club, recalling visits there with grandparents during summer vacation, with volleyball, horseshoes, miniature golf, swimming, boating and fishing.

San Moritz Lodge remains on that shore. Once a restaurant, it is now opened for weddings, civic events and other special occasions. Other structures once there are now gone, except for the bathhouse, which was converted to a senior center.

In 1977, the San Bernardino County Regional Parks Department took over Lake Gregory and later the lodge. The lake is now open to the public from Memorial Day to Labor Day, with a longer season for fishing.

And though much has changed, much remains the same. Paddleboards, water bikes and boats still dot the surface of the lake, which continues to be the centerpiece of the quiet mountain town.