The city of San Bernardino lies some six miles south of the mountain range, about four miles north of the Santa Ana River, and three miles from the railway station at Colton. It is 531 miles south of San Francisco, lying on the great thoroughfares that run southeastward, and those which penetrate the desert region of the interior basin. Here converge the roads leading through the Cajon pass to the mining districts of Panamint, Death Valley, Hualapa and the upper Colorado; and those from the other mineral regions of Holcomb Valley, and, through the San Gorgonio Pass, from La Paz, Prescott, Yuma, and the East. The Mormons who surveyed and laid off San Bernardino, displayed as much judgment here as elsewhere in their choice of locality, selecting a point about the center of the valley, in the midst of the finest farming land; and flowing past it several streams of living water.
Additional San Bernardino City Resources
- San Bernardino City History
- San Bernardino City Municipal Buildings
- San Bernardino Banking History
- San Bernardino City Services
- San Bernardino City Churches
- San Bernardino City Societies
- The San Bernardino Society of California Pioneers
Source: An Illustrated History of Southern California: embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the peninsula of lower California.