The first Bear Valley Dam was constructed in 1884 at a cost of $75,000. It was built to create a reservoir for downstream irrigation uses in Redlands, resulting in the largest man-made body of water in the world at the time. When Frank E. Brown engineered this dam, he couldn't have possibly envisioned the role Big Bear Lake would play

First Bear Valley Dam under construction 1884

Fishing off the old dam before construction

of 1912 Eastwood Dam

The present multiple arch dam was built from 1910-1912 at a cost of $138,000 and is located about 100 yards downstream from the Old Bear Valley Dam. The top of the arches is 72 feet 4 inches from the Lake bottom and its construction nearly tripled the storage of the reservoir to 73,000 acre feet. In 1924, a highway bridge was constructed over the top of the buttresses. This road is now part of State Route 18.

in the future development of the surrounding mountain communities.

Following the completion of this first dam, the valley experienced many years of above average snowfall and plans were made to create an even larger storage reservoir. This included construction of a 65 foot high rock-filled dam, located 300 feet downstream from the original dam. However this project ended in bankruptcy and in 1909 new designs were considered.

In 1910, Bear Valley Mutual Water Company retained an engineer to design and oversee the construction of the current concrete dam.

The storage capacity of the newly created Lake was 25,000 acre feet (one acre foot is enough water for a family of four for one year). Many engineers claimed that this single arch granite dam would not hold. Sometime later, those same doubting engineers declared it "The Eighth Wonder of the World". This dam is still generally intact, but is usually submerged beneath the higher 1912 dam.