Blue Jay is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

. It is located in the

San Bernardino Mountains The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain ...

, above a region of California known as the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...

, and is within the

San Bernardino National Forest The San Bernardino National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern California encompassing of which are federal. The forest is made up of two main divisions, the eastern portion of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernar ...

. Blue Jay Village itself is located one mile from the southwestern bank of Lake Arrowhead. The town is a part of the Lake Arrowhead Community. Other towns in this community are Lake Arrowhead,

Running Springs Running Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 5,268 at the 2020 census, up from 4,862 at the 2010 census. Running Springs is situated 17 miles west of the city of Big Bea ...

, Twin Peaks, Sky Forest, Agua Fria, and Cedar Glen.

History

The town started as the homestead of Art (1880-1956) and Norma Wixom (b. Harmon, 1883-1978). They leased a few vacation cabins and opened a store in 1914. Stoney DeMent (1892-1972) leased the land and built a market called The Blue Jay Market in 1934, named after the blue-colored birds that lived in the area, which later became the name of the town built up around it. The naming of the town is something of a misnomer: the local variety of

jay Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

is actually the

Steller's jay Steller's jay (''Cyanocitta stelleri'') is a bird native to western North America and the mountains of Central America, closely related to the blue jay (''C. cristata'') found in eastern North America. It is the only crest (feathers), crested jay ...

, not the closely related

blue jay The blue jay (''Cyanocitta cristata'') is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to eastern North America. It lives in most of the eastern and central United States; some eastern populations may be migratory. Resident populations ar ...

. While this is widely known in the area, the name has stuck. Residents began to move to Blue Jay about 10 years later. In 1978, Bluejay was purchased by H.R. "Rick" Kaufman through his company Pioneer Take Out Corporation aka Pioneer Chicken.

Today

Blue Jay Village today is home to 2,314 residents. It is considered the entertainment district of the Lake Arrowhead community. It contains a shopping center, a number of restaurants, a bank, the Lake Arrowhead Library, and many privately owned stores. A movie theater, Blue Jay Cinema, operated from 1988 until June 2023. The village also hosts many events including the Lake Arrowhead celebration of film, The Blue Jay Christmas parade, and the Blue Jay Jazz Festival.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20060424054559/http://www.bluejayvillage.com/ {{authority control San Bernardino Mountains Unincorporated communities in San Bernardino County, California Unincorporated communities in California 1914 establishments in California