This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from a historic image of Wrightwood and a vintage map to Wrightwood and Big Pines Park, in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" format is an excellent image size that looks great as a stand-alone piece of art, or as a grouped visual statement. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom sizing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online.
A great vintage print for your home, business, or mountain cabin!
WRIGHTWOOD & BIG PINES HISTORY
WRIGHTWOOD
The community of Wrightwood is located in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California, straddling the border between San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties.
Wrightwood was established in 1924, when local ranch owner Sumner Wright joined with Los Angeles real estate investors and subdivided a large portion of his Swarthout Valley Ranch into residential lots.
The new community was fittingly named “Wrightwood” after the mountain patriarch. Advertisements for the parcels lauded the benefits of clean mountain living “in the Kingdom of Four Seasons at Wrightwood Mountains, California.”
Wrightwood has developed into a resort community with a variety of shopping, restaurants, lodging, and a population of about 5,000 full-time residents. The surrounding mountains offer hiking, fishing, camping, and winter snow play. The community also supports Mountain High, the local ski resort during the winter season.
BIG PINES
Big Pines Recreation Camp was the idea of Los Angeles County officials who envisioned building an extensive year-round park in the local mountains, on the eastern edge of the county. The park would be the crown jewel in the county park system that allowed residents to swim in the surf and have a snowball fight on the same day.
Beginning around 1921, L.A. County purchased the Big Pines Ranch and other properties in the area, and started building new roads and park facilities.
Big Pines Recreation Park was fully opened to the public in July, 1924.
L.A. County made extensive additions to the Big Pines facilities, including the construction of the iconic Davidson Arch in 1926. The stone archway spanned the highway at the newly built recreation hall, and the arch had a stone tower at each end.
The first privately operated ski facility at Big Pines began operating in 1937, when Harlow Dormer and Craig Wilson cleared trails on Table Mountain, (north of the recreation hall) and built a gas-powered rope tow. Table Mountain became Ski Sunrise in 1975.
L.A. County Parks Department developed ski facilities on Blue Ridge, just south of the Big Pines recreation hall, and in 1937-38, Tom Triol and Frank Springer took over management of those facilities. They expanded the trails and facilities to accommodate skiers of all skill levels, and the first chairlift at Blue Ridge was opened in 1947.
L.A. County turned over operation of Big Pines Park to the U.S. Forest Service in 1941.
In 1949, Big Pines got its third ski resort when ski champion Sepp Benedikter partnered with John Steinmann to build the Holiday Hill Resort on a north-facing slope, just east of the Blue Ridge Resort. In 1981, Holiday Hill was sold, and it became part of the Mountain High Resort.
The Blue Ridge Resort was renamed Mountain High in 1975, and in 2004, Ski Sunrise became part of the Mountain High resorts.
As of 2024, the Mountain High Resorts now operate as Mountain High West (formerly Blue Ridge), Mountain High East (formerly Holiday Hill), and Mountain High North (formerly Table Mountain/Ski Sunrise).
