William F. Holcomb

William Francis "Grizzly Bill" Holcomb (27 January 1831 – 1909), 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.

William Frances Holcomb was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana on January 27, 1831. At about age 18, he migrated with many other young men in the California Gold Rush for a chance of riches. His party had many difficulties. At the Green River crossing on the Sublette Cutoff in present-day Wyoming, he lost his wagon and entire outfit; his oxen drowned. He had to reach Placerville, California on foot. He failed in his attempts at mining in the Sierra Nevada gold fields and later in the Kern River fields. He went to Oregon for a while, then went down to Southern California.

In 1859 while in Los Angeles, Holcomb and a companion Jack Martin heard of the Bear Valley diggings near San Bernardino. They set out to make another try at mining. They had to force their horses through deep snow to reach the Bear Valley diggings. Already Bear Valley had been dubbed “Starvation Flatts” by its discouraged group of miners, who were finding little. Soon after Holcomb’s arrival, one of the miners panned some gold from under the pine trees a few hundred feet up the hillside and saved the Bear Valley diggings from abandonment.

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