Established in 1944
Reimagined in 2021
In March 2021, a tight-knit friend family purchased the Quail Cove Lakeside Lodge from its longtime owners and transformed it into The Outpost, a unique mountain lodging experience and event space on Big Bear Lake's exquisite North Shore.
Our story starts with a bike ride around Big Bear Lake in October 2020. That's when one of our owners noticed the Quail Cove, a historic property located at the gateway to adventure on the lake's North Shore, was for sale by owner. He immediately had a vision. That vision became The Outpost, a place to gather, a hub for the community and a destination for adventure seekers, nature lovers and creatives.
The Outpost's five owners -- Jolene, Billy, Alyssa, Becky and Tim -- hail from the east coast.
Jolene Van Vugt is a former motocross racer and X Games competitor and the first woman to backflip a full-sized dirtbike. She currently works as a Hollywood stuntwoman. Her brother, Billy Van Vugt, is a former motocross racer and freestyle motocross athlete who also works in the stunt and action sports world. They are originally from London, Ontario, Canada. Billy is the current mayor of Fawnskin! Billy's wife, Alyssa Roenigk, is a senior features and investigative writer, TV reporter and podcast host for ESPN who was born in Pittsburgh, graduated from the University of Florida and spent a decade in NYC before moving west. Tim and Becky Clark are restaurant owners from Vermont and Rhode Island with businesses in West Dover and Wilmington, VT, and Block Island, RI. They are staples of the international ski and snowboard community.
The five of us have a collective passion for the outdoors, action sports, travel, music, adventure, art and community, and we are pouring all that we love about staying in small, local hotels and lodges into creating a home away from home for all of our guests.
The Outpost.
Keep going. You're almost there.
HISTORY
of 39117 North Shore Drive
In 1944, Jay and Mary Ellen Jonas buy property in Fawnskin, California, from the bridge (across from the new Post Office on North Shore Drive) all the way to what is now The Outpost.
Jay builds two cabins -- what we now call Cabins 1 and 2 --as well as a little cabin for he, his wife and young daughter, Wanda, as well as a storefront along the highway that is now The Pinecone. They call their resort The Fawnview Cabins.
The photo on the left is the view looking out to North Shore Drive from Cabin 2 and the photo on the right is looking at what is now The Outpost from the hill across the street ...
Jackie and Shadow's viewpoint, if you will!
The Jonas family runs a variety store at what is now The Pinecone and rents gas-powered Moto-Scoots to visitors to Big Bear. That's the Jonas family on the right and Mary Ellen and the family dog sitting on a Moto-Scoot.
Jay also constructs the building next to the bridge that becomes Amangelas years later and he, Mary Ellen and Wanda live there until 1954, when Wanda turns 7.
The Jonas family sells Fawnview Cabins and its variety store to Otis and Gladys Smith sometime in the 1960s, and the Smiths continue to run the business as Fawnview Cabins for many years.
After the Smith family passes, the property exchanges hands a few times before it is purchased in 1993 by Craig and Grace Manners from Wallace and Leona Van Asperen, prominent lodge owners from Big Bear Lake who, in 1989, changed the name from Fawnview Lodge to Quail Cove. Craig and Grace eventually add Lakeside Lodge to the name in the 1990s.
