The Eleanor Abbott Big Bear Valley Historical Museum has been in operation since 1982. The idea for the museum first came about in the late ‘60s when longtime Big Bear resident Eleanor Abbott recognized a need for historical preservation.

Kim Sweet, who has been the museum’s curator for 12 years, says she’s glad Abbott came to that realization. Sweet says if we don’t preserve Big Bear Valley’s rich history now, it could be lost for future generations.

Sweet says the museum holds a lot of treasures from the area. Thousands of artifacts from Serrano Native Americans, early pioneers, gold miners and even 1940s movie stars fill the shelves in the museum’s nine buildings. Sweet says for her, there’s nothing more exciting than looking at things that belonged to the people who came before us.