Starvation Flats is an area in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear Lake, California.
It was originally a settlement of the Native American Serrano people for thousands of years.
[1] Starvation Flats was an open mountain plain with occasional grizzly bears.
In 1845, Don Benito Wilson and 22 other men rode into the area in search of rustlers, but found only bears.
Eventually, they enlisted William F. Holcomb, who was widely known as "the best sharpshooter west of the Mississippi", to exterminate the grizzly bears.