At the Green River crossing on the Sublette Cutoff in present-day Wyoming, he lost his wagon and entire outfit; his oxen drowned.
In 1859 while in Los Angeles, Holcomb and a companion Jack Martin heard of the Bear Valley diggings near San Bernardino.
Soon after Holcomb's arrival, one of the miners panned some gold from under the pine trees a few hundred feet up the hillside and saved the Bear Valley diggings from abandonment.
[1] Like the others, Holcomb suffered from the lack of supplies and minimal gold finds in the rural mountain community.
Called "the best sharpshooter west of the Mississippi", Holcomb was asked by the miners to shoot some of the grizzly bears living in the area for their meat.
By July miners poured into the Holcomb Valley, as the news of gold spread far and wide.
[4] With some financial future seeming in his grasp, in 1860 Holcomb married Nancy Stewart and built a house in San Bernardino.
[5] His great-grandson, Bob Holcomb, was the longest-serving mayor of San Bernardino in history, holding the office from 1971 through 1985 and again from 1989 through 1993.
[7] Upon returning to San Bernardino, Holcomb worked in mountain lumber camps for four years until his election as the county assessor in 1871.