The neighborhood lies below the Arrowhead geological monument, which is
California Historical Landmark #977. This possibly indigenously carved Geoglyph on a geologic formation of light quartz on the side of Arrowhead Peak. It presides over San Bernardino and the rest of the San Bernardino Valley. The city of
Lake Arrowhead, California and the adjacent lake,
Lake Arrowhead Reservoir, take their names from the formation as does
Arrowhead Water. The
Native Americans of the
San Bernardino Valley thought the Arrowhead pointed to the artesian
hot springs below, which are the site of the historic Arrowhead Springs Hotel, Spa, & Bungalows. The region is also home to the
Arrowhead Country Club and Golf Course. The Arrowhead landmark itself is at . In a 2007 report in
The California Geographer, however,
California State University, San Bernardino geography professor Norman Meek noted that the first direct record of the feature appeared in an 1864 photograph taken shortly after the establishment of the health resort by David Noble Smith at the hot springs. No mention of the arrowhead appears in any records of Spanish travelers in the area in the 18th or early 19th centuries, nor in records of Mormon settlement in the area in the 1850s, nor in the first scientific geological survey conducted in the area of the feature in 1853. Meek conducted analysis of soil samples, finding no significant difference in substrate composition of arrowhead itself compared to its surroundings aside from increased traces of
fire retardant chemicals used for wildfire control, casting doubt on the hypothesis that the feature could be explained as a purely natural formation. Based on this, and the sudden increase in reports and purported legends of the arrowhead in late 19th century reporting and advertising for the resort, Meek contended that "the arrowhead may be a human-made advertisement created sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s, perhaps by the founder of the hot springs resort". He suggested that the feature may have been constructed with the help of local native tribespeople, possibly modifying a landslide scar. ==Arrowhead Springs Hotel and Spa==