Big Bear City
| Big Bear City, California | |
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| Unincorporated town | |
Looking west at corner of Big Bear Boulevard and Greenway in Big Bear City. This is where Highways 18 and 38 cross over.
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 Location in San Bernardino County and the state of California |
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 Big Bear City, California
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| Coordinates: 34°15′40″N 116°50′42″W / 34.26111°N 116.84500°WCoordinates: 34°15′40″N 116°50′42″W / 34.26111°N 116.84500°W | |
| Country |
 United States
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| State |
 California
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| County | San Bernardino |
| Area | |
| • CDP | 31.97 sq mi (82.80 km2) |
| • Land | 31.95 sq mi (82.76 km2) |
| • Water | 0.02 sq mi (0.04 km2) 0.05% |
| Elevation | 6,772 ft (2,064 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • CDP | 34,109 |
| • Estimate (2016) | N/A |
| Time zone | Pacific (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP codes | 92314, 92386 |
| Area code | 909 |
| FIPS code | 06-06406 |
| GNIS feature IDs | 1660331, 2407838 |
Big Bear City is an unincorporated town in San Bernardino County, California, United States along the east shore of Big Bear Lake and surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest. It is located 27 miles (43 km) northeast of the city of San Bernardino, and immediately east of the incorporated city of Big Bear Lake. Its population was 12,304 at the 2010 census, up from 5,779 at the 2000 census. The makeup of Big Bear City is mostly residential with smaller houses and cabins laid out in typical square block fashion.
Despite the name, Big Bear City is not an incorporated city, and should not be confused with the adjacent incorporated city of Big Bear Lake.
Big Bear got its name due to the large number of grizzly bears that once roamed the area. Although grizzly bears went extinct in the valley at the turn of the 20th century, there are still thousands of black bears found in Big Bear Valley.
The first people to inhabit Big Bear Valley was the Serrano Indians, who can trace their beginnings to Bear Valley. “Serrano” means mountaineers, or more literally “those of the Sierras.” The Serrano people however, who settled much of the San Bernardino Mountains, called themselves Yuhaviatam, or “people of the pines.”
The Serrano people is estimated to have first settled in Big Bear 2,000－1,500 years ago. The Serranos had winter- and summer settlements throughout the area. While a winter village was located in Lucerne Valley, they relocated to villages in the San Bernardino's during summer. Villages were often located by rivers and lakes, but mountain hunting camps were also established on higher elevations. Besides hunting, they also lived off of pinyon nuts, mesquite beans, screwbeans, juniper berries and seeds. One of four major Serrano ethnographic sites was located in Big Bear City, namely Kayah-pia-t. Big Bear and Lucerne Valley were both belonging to the same clan: the coyote Pervetum clan.
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Wikipedia