ds’ displeasure.”
This account reports that Spanish missionaries returned in 1819 intending to raise cattle in a new Rancho they called San Bernardino. The Europeans discovered the area’s population had since grown to include new arrivals of Serrano Indians.
The mission era ended when the Mexican government secularized the Catholic outposts. Mexican control of California ended in 1848 after the United States’ victory in the Mexican War.
Religious travelers would shape San Bernardino history again in 1851 when the Mormon Battalion purchased Rancho San Bernardino from the Lugo Brothers. The settlers built a stockade around the site of what is now San Bernardino Superior Court.
“They were worried that the Indians would attack and they never did,” Shaw said.
San Bernardino was officially incorporated in 1854. Three years later, many of the Mormon pioneers returned to Utah, heeding Brigham Young’s call to prepare for a potential fight with the U.S. Army.
Shaw said San Bernardino became a “typical Wild West town” after most of the Mormons left the city. The city began its development into a transportation hub during the latter decades of the 19th Century with the construction of the railroads.
The city adopted its first Charter in 1905. The next 105 years would see the age of Route 66, Norton Air Force Base, the construction of the freeways and more recently, the tough years that followed the closure of the Air Force installation and other key employment centers.
Bicentennial festivities are scheduled to begin Feb. 18 with a performance of “Legend of the Arrowhead” at California Theatre.
Additional events include a Bicentennial Gala on May 15 at National Orange Show Events Center and Festival of Faiths is scheduled for the following day at Arrowhead Credit Union Park.
The schedule’s finale is the Bicentennial July 4th Extravaganza, which is also set to take place at the ballpark.
- February 18 Legend of the Arrowhead, California Theater
- March 17 Morrow-McCombs Memorial Lecture, CSUSB
- March Tree Planting, City Wide
- April Neighborhood Beautification, City Wide
- May 1 San Bernardino Symphony Concert, California Theater
- May 8 and 9 Railroad Days, San Bernardino History and Railroad Museum
- May 15 Bicentennial Gala, National Orange Show Events Center
- May 16 (morning) Mayor’s Bicentennial Run, Arrowhead Credit Union Park (starting line)
- May 16 (afternoon) Festival of Faiths, Western Regional Little League Headquarters
- May 20 Centennial Monument Rededication and Bicentennial Monument Dedication, TBD
- May 22 Bicentennial Parade, Corner of 8th and E Streets to Arrowhead Credit Union Park
- June 17 – 19 San Bernardino’s Got Talent, Sturges Theater for the Performing Arts
- July 4 Bicentennial/Independence Day Extravaganza, Arrowhead Credit Union Park