Big Bear

The Inn was built by a gentleman by the name of william Edwin Knickerbocker. But he preferred the nickname Knick. Knick's birth name was William Edwin Knickerbocker, a name far too fussy for his liking, so he called himself Bill Knick. Knick was born in Pennsylvania in 1869 to a Seneca mother and a Dutch father. And while it might stretch the truth to claim he was born with an axe handle in his hand, this would be a minor exaggeration. In truth, Bill Knick was as much of a natural at chopping down trees as trees are to growing in a forest. He spent his childhood gathering fallen timber from Pennsylvania's forests. And by age twelve he was strong enough to handle an axe and began felling trees on his own. A woodsman from the get-go he grew up with splinters in his hands and sawdust in his blood thus earning him the unoffical title of axman of the Mts.

As a young man he traveled to California, arriving in the San Bernardino region about 1901. having lived almost his entire life living in the forests of the east, he was much Inclined to Big Tree living, so it was natural for Knick to gravitate to the rugged, tree-rich mountain forests of Big Bear Valley where he found a land worthy of calling his home.

Exercising an optimistic approach toward the gold-rich wealth of Holcomb Valley, Knick staked two mining claims. He supported his mining ventures by doing what he did best, working the timber industry felling trees and hauling logs by horse-drawn wagon down the mountain to Banning. In 1904, at age thirty-five, love struck an arrow into Knick and he fell fast and hard into the loving arms of Rose Pollard. They married and settled into a cabin in the nearby town of Doble (Where is Doble?).