Little Cabin History
Built in 1920, our little cabin was originally even smaller than it is today. The living room was originally the front porch while the kitchen and bathroom didn't even exist.
It all started in 1897 when the Forest Service began offering . . .
special permits, allowing people to have "summer homes" in the national forest. Within a few years, they passed an "occupancy act" that allowed people to live in their cabins year-round, with certain restrictions. The main one being your cabin can't be your main residence. All cabin owners must have a permanent residence other than at their cabin.
The Big Bear area has approximately 450 forest cabins in 11 tracts, with ours, the Pine Knot Tract, being one of the smallest with only 8 cabins. Most of the other cabins are in Boulder Bay and Fawnskin, with many only accessible during the summer. None of the access roads going to the cabins are maintained by the county, so you can imagine the difficulty of getting to a cabin that's several miles from a maintained road.
A few things that make forest cabins unique . . .
is you can fix your cabin up any way you like on the inside, but the outside must stay looking like a traditional old cabin. You can't have a garage, sidewalks, or pavement. You can't grow grass, have a flower bed, or a bird feeder. You own your cabin, but not the land it's sitting on, so you have no right to tell people they can't cross over what looks like your property or have a picnic in what looks like your backyard. We love it!