Chapter 2

GREEN VALLEY LAKE

Green Valley Lake, a small community located five miles east of Running Springs and approximately thirty miles from San Bernardino, first became a winter sports area in the 1920s. In 1925, Los Angeles developers DeWitt and Blair began building roads and subdividing lots. When the dam was completed in 1926, a widespread advertising campaign was launched. DeWitt and Blair built a clubhouse and started what they called the Top o’ the World Club, whose membership was open to any Green Valley Lake lot owner. In February 1929, the Top o’ the World Club began preparing a large area of the lake for ice skating, and the State Highway Department cleared Green Valley Lake Road in anticipation of the crowds that would make the trip to Green Valley Lake if ice skating was available. A toboggan slide had also been completed, and a hill for ski jumpers was in the planning stages.¹⁶

Before Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl was developed in 1945–46, some local residents installed their own rope tows for ski and toboggan runs. Les Salm, later to become Lake Arrowhead’s first fire chief, pioneered this effort when he constructed Green Valley Lake’s first tow in 1937. He installed a three-hundred-foot rope tow, powered by a seven-horsepower Briggs and Stratton engine. The tow was approximately 150 yards uphill, behind Joe and Eleanor Fox’s Trading Post, at what is now known locally as Suicide Hill. Bob Wubben, a longtime resident of Green Valley Lake, designed and built the power assembly at the bottom of the hill. Fox’s Trading Post provided food and served as a warming hut for the skiers. Wubben’s wife Doris recalled, “The Trading Post became the funhouse of Green Valley.”¹⁷

Salm, born in Michigan in 1908, made a number of contributions to Southern California’s early ski history. He and his family came from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to the Torrance area in 1911. He became a San Bernardino National Forest ranger in 1926–27 and, through his motorcycle patrols, became intimately acquainted with the forest from Lake Arrowhead to Snow Valley. He worked as a ranger until 1942, when he began working for the Lake Arrowhead County Fire District. He served as Lake Arrowhead’s fire chief for twenty-three years. Not only did he construct Green Valley Lake’s first tow, but he also later revitalized post–World War II skiing in Lake Arrowhead. He was also responsible for giving Snow Valley its name. In the early 1930s, the area was known as Fish Camp. By the latter half of the 1930s, it had become extremely popular with skiers and was a favorite destination of the Lake Arrowhead crowd. As a result, Salm began referring to the area as Snow Valley. At the end of 1937, with the encouragement and backing of Sverre Engen, who had been running the ski operation, the Forest Service formally changed the name to Snow Valley.

Les Salm’s Green Valley Lake rope tow, built in 1937, was one of Southern California’s first ski tows. Courtesy of Jill Salm Walker.

Salm’s hand-built tow motor for his Green Valley Lake ski tow, along with a sign advertising ten-cent tow rides. Courtesy of Jill Salm Walker.

Les Salm at Mill Creek Ranger Station, 1929. A skier from a young age, he built two of the first rope tows in Southern California, one at Fish Camp (Snow Valley) in 1932 and the other at Green Valley Lake in 1937. Courtesy of Jill Salm Walker.

It is also possible that Salm built the first rope tow in California. In one of his historic 1930s photo albums, he recounted that, in 1922, the road ended at Fish Camp. The area was dotted with six cabins, and John Swetkovich, nicknamed Johnnie Sixbits, operated a sawmill there. Salm wrote that he built a one-thousand-foot-long rope tow, using Swetkovich’s steam-powered logging donkey engine for power. He also noted that as many as ten people used the tow on some Sundays.

The 1922 date is likely incorrect, since Salm would have been about fourteen years old. It is apparent that he meant to write “1932,” which is when Salm was an active Forest Service ranger and would have frequently been patrolling the Fish Camp area. The 1932 date is nevertheless significant because, with the exception of Truckee’s 1910 toboggan tow that skiers adopted as a ski lift, Salm’s Fish Camp tow was California’s first rope tow.

Green Valley Lake’s other pioneer rope tow builder was Bob Wubben. During the 1940–41 season, he built a rope tow about 150 yards east of Salm’s tow. His tow was powered by an old automobile engine mounted on a concrete base situated at the top of the run.¹⁸ Both tows sat at the east end of Meadow Lane. When Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl opened in the winter of 1945–46, the equipment from the Suicide Hill tows was put to use there.

In 1950, Bob and Doris Wubben bought the original equipment back from Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl, obtained a lease from the Forest Service to operate at Suicide Hill and set up two toboggan runs. Wubben used Ford Model A wheels, mounted on trees at the top and bottom of the runs, as pulleys to guide the rope. The runs traveled five hundred feet down toward Green Valley Lake Road. Tobogganers would sometimes reach speeds of forty-five miles per hour. The runs had a starting gate to help keep the toboggans from sliding downhill before the riders were ready. The Wubbens awarded a prize to anyone who made it down the hill, across the creek and to the finish at Green Valley Lake Road. They later added a third run that traveled around the side of the hill and had banked S curves like a bobsled run. The high cost of liability insurance forced the closure of the operation in 1953.

Bob Wubben, longtime Green Valley Lake resident and winter sports pioneer. He helped Les Salm build Green Valley Lake’s first ski tow and later built his own tows for skiing and tobogganing. Courtesy of Peg Wubben Weiler.

On March 1, 1955, the Wubbens obtained a Forest Service permit to develop a small ski run on the back of their property on Green Valley Lake Road. They used the same Briggs and Stratton engine and other equipment from the toboggan runs. The tow was used by family members and guests. The Wubbens operated this tow until 1967.

Though little is left of Les Salm’s and Bob Wubben’s tows, and few remain who remember them, they were the first rope tows in the Green Valley Lake area and provided family members and locals a place to gather for winter sports fun.

View of the base area of Wubben’s rope tow looking toward Green Valley Lake Road. Wubben operated the tow, built in 1955 behind his cabin, for use by family and friends. Courtesy of Peg Wubben Weiler.

Larry Ferguson, Joe Fox and Ernest C. “Doc” Vawter founded Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl in the winter of 1945–46. They chose the slopes in Green Valley because of high snowfall amounts and the fact that snow clung to Green Valley Lake’s north-facing slopes longer than most other Southern California mountain areas. Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl, with a base elevation of approximately seven thousand feet, was higher than any other San Bernardino Mountain ski resort.

The three founders established the Green Valley Lake Corporation on October 15, 1946. Joe Fox, president, managed the ski area in 1945 and 1946. He also operated a ski tow on private land. Vawter, vice-president, managed Hoyt Heater Company in Los Angeles and had been a property owner and resident of Green Valley Lake beginning in 1935. Ferguson, secretary-treasurer, and his wife moved to Green Valley Lake in 1938. Ferguson, a partner with Joe Fox in Fox Lumber, operated the clubhouse, real estate office and boat dock and was active in ski area operations from its beginnings in 1945 until his death in 1974. The men were involved with primarily summer businesses and wanted to develop a venture that would provide recreation for local residents, as well as revenue, during the winter months.

Larry Ferguson, along with Joe Fox and Ernest C. “Doc” Vawter, founded Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl in 1945–46. Ferguson was active in the development and management of the area from its beginnings until his death in 1974. Courtesy of Lyle Ferguson.

The Snow Bowl began with two rope tows, the 1,100-foot “Big Tow” and the 600-foot “Little Tow.” In late 1947, the three partners made significant improvements to the area. They cleared and smoothed ski runs and filled gullies. A network of intersecting runs and open areas was designed to give skiers a greater variety of trails. That same year, construction was completed on a warming hut, which housed a snack bar, rental room and restroom.

Area improvements continued into 1948. Slopes were again bulldozed and cleared. Extensive work created new advanced runs in the upper bowl. A new ski school slope with its own tow was available free of charge to ski school students, and a new building dedicated for National Ski Patrol use was constructed from timber removed from the ski hill. Green Valley had a well-trained and organized ski patrol providing as many as eleven patrolmen on weekends.

A view of Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl’s base area, outfitted with a day lodge and rope tow. Though the area was small, skiers could often find plentiful powder due to Green Valley Lake’s north-facing slopes and seven-thousand-foot base elevation. Courtesy of Russ Keller.

Skiers ride the small tow at Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl. Courtesy of Russ Keller.

In the early 1950s, a number of new Southern California ski areas were born, and existing ski areas made improvements and installed chairlifts. In 1954, wanting to improve the lifts at the Snow Bowl, Ferguson traveled to Arapahoe Basin, Colorado, to examine a Poma lift. So, in addition to its three rope tows, the area became the first in Southern California to install a Poma lift. The 1,280-foot-long lift arrived from Europe by boat and was transported to Green Valley Lake on Fox’s lumber truck. Ferguson’s son Lyle recalled that the lift arrived just like a “TinkerToy kit.”¹⁹

Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl was not a moneymaker for any of the three partners but continued to survive through good seasons and bad. Lyle Ferguson commented, “It was something that everybody felt was absolutely a part of their soul; the ski hill was the valley and the valley was the ski hill, as well as the lake. Being a part of that was really a wonderful experience…to grow up with that environment.”²⁰

The three founders continued to operate the area until 1960. Doc Vawter, who had essentially remained a silent partner, moved away from Green Valley Lake. Earl Voorhees, who had been involved in other ski areas, bought Vawter’s share of the business. However, the deal did not result in a three-way split. Ferguson and Fox retained a controlling interest in the area. In contrast to Vawter, Voorhees was an active, hands-on partner. After he joined the duo, he expanded runs and improved terrain.

Around 1970, Joe and Eleanor Fox sold their lumberyard and wanted to sell their share in the ski area. So, in 1972, Don and Ann Howe, longtime Green Valley Lake skiers and ski patrol members, became partners in the Green Valley Lake Corporation. Ann Howe renamed the area Ski Green Valley, immediately making her mark on the area.

Another partnership change took place in 1974 when Larry Ferguson died. Lyle Ferguson assumed his father’s position in the corporation. Lyle had been working at the ski area since he was twelve years old. After his father’s death, his role did not change significantly since he had been heavily involved and worked at the area every year, only now he was an official partner in the enterprise.

Not long before Ferguson’s death, Voorhees became less active in the business and decided he wanted to sell his share. Ferguson and the Howes bought Voorhees’s share, and the area became a fifty-fifty partnership.

Ferguson and the Howes operated Ski Green Valley until 1986, when Lloyd and Catherine Peake purchased the area. The Peakes immediately made significant improvements: they purchased a new snowcat, remodeled the lodge and installed Ski Green Valley’s first chairlift.

In 1993–94, with the burgeoning popularity of snowboarding, the Peakes renamed the resort Big Air Green Valley. In conjunction with the name change, the area became a snowboard-only resort. In January 1993, snowboarding-only began on a six- to eight-week trial basis, with the resort catering to snowboarders Monday through Friday. Skiers still had access to the resort on weekends and holidays.

Nationally, skier numbers had been dwindling while snowboarders were increasing steadily. Many ski areas had refused to allow snowboarders on their slopes. But as snowboarding entered the mainstream and ski areas realized the effect snowboarders could have on their bottom line, resorts began to cater to riders as well as skiers. Big Air Green Valley, at fifty acres the smallest of Southern California’s ski resorts, was in a very difficult market, competing against Snow Valley, Bear Mountain and Snow Summit with their longer runs and greater number of lifts. Eric Schwarz, director of marketing at Big Air Green Valley, expressed the frustration the resort was experiencing at that time: “The writing is on the wall. In a zero-growth industry, this is the only thing that’s growing. It’s rough for the big guys [in the Southern California ski market]. We cannot compete with them, so we needed to find another way to stand out.”²¹

In its inaugural season as Big Air Green Valley, the resort met with limited success due to lack of snow and a limited snow-making system. It was a risk to create the West’s first snowboard-only park, and many longtime Ski Green Valley devotees were unhappy with the change. After all, the area had been the quintessential mom and pop family ski resort whose clientele was mostly made up of Green Valley Lake cabin owners, other mountain residents and skiers who wanted to avoid the “carnival at Snow Valley and the mob scene at Big Bear.”²²

The area’s ski runs were only half the length of those at Snow Valley, Snow Summit and Bear Mountain, but the area compensated by adding challenging obstacles. A number of man-made and natural jumps were created along with side rails installed throughout the area. There was also a half-pipe serviced by a rope tow.

By 1996, Peake had brought in Dave Wilson and eventually transferred the area to him. Big Air Green Valley continued to struggle financially, and in 1998, the resort changed its name to Big Air Winter Park, signaling the return of skiers to the area. However, in May 1999, Wilson asked Ferguson and the Howes to take the area back. The trio accepted and regained ownership, but within a few months, they made a deal with Calvary Chapel, owners of a nearby summer camp, to manage and operate the area.

Big Air Winter Park did not open during the 1999–2000 and 2000–1 seasons due to late-season snowfall and the uncertainty of ownership status. Under Calvary Chapel’s management, the area operated only intermittently, and when Randy Pattison and Ron Bigelow took ownership in the fall of 2005, the resort had been sitting idle with the exception of a couple of weekends in February 2002.

Pattison renamed the area Trinity Mountain Resort. Calvary Chapel had planned to run the resort as part of its ministry, but the new owners planned to run the area as a business but with a Christian twist. Smoking, alcohol and offensive language were not permitted.

Pattison and Bigelow made much-needed improvements to the area, including remodeling the base lodge. The 2005–6 season started late; Trinity Mountain did not open until March but was able to remain open for thirty-one days. In spring 2006, the pair began working on getting a snow-making system in place. Then, during the summer of 2006, Bigelow resigned as vice-president to pursue other interests. Pattison remained as president/CEO, and Craig Carlson served as chief financial officer. The owners had invested more than $250,000 to get the area up and running, but the 2006–7 season was dismal. They opened for only three days of skiing that season. Pattison explained the difficulties of area operations at that point:

Our frustration was for the 34 days we used the resort we were profitable on a daily basis. Snowmaking was to be our golden addition and key for success. One of the major issues we had when we took over the resort was erosion…We worked hard to keep the mountain out of Green Valley Lake. On February 28, 2006 we lost the erosion battle and during a 100 year flood the town of Green Valley Lake was covered with silt from our mountain. It was a massive cleanup effort.²³

Then, on October 22, 2007, the massive Slide Fire, pushed by severe Santa Ana winds, surrounded Green Valley Lake, destroying over one hundred homes, the ski hill’s outbuildings and the area’s only chairlift. Pattison recounted the grim circumstances:

The fire came in from the east and burned through the bottom motor room of the main chair. The lodge was spared thanks to a drop of retardant from a tanker. We parked the snow grooming machines in the middle of a ski run and the fire burned within 10 feet but caused no damage. The top of the main chairlift’s counter weight that holds the tension on the cable melted, causing the lift to lose tension. Dismantling the chairlift was a major undertaking. Insurance coverage was not enough to handle a complete rebuild, so all we could do was surrender the permit back to the Forest Service and return the area back to its natural state.²⁴

Over the years, the Green Valley Lake Snow Bowl, in all its incarnations, provided what one journalist called a “rare luxury these days: a quiet day of relaxed and highly enjoyable low-voltage skiing.”²⁵ Unfortunately, in its last years, Green Valley’s ski area struggled through numerous ownership changes, lack of snow making and years of limited or no snowfall. The Slide Fire in 2007 was the death knell from which the resort could not recover.