In Winter Wonderland, It’s Season of Commerce, Crowds : Tourism: Tiny Frazier Park, at the gateway of Los Padres National Forest mountains, feels the annual crush of snow seekers.

Ah, winter. When the thoughts of many residents here turn to money. Or, alternatively, getting all those darned drivers from Los Angeles off their roads.

This may be an obscure little mountain town--population 2,200--most days of the year, but let a little snow fall on the surrounding mountainsides, and thousands of city folks descend to partake in a little winter wonderland frolicking.

Many drive right past the unpretentious wooden homes and businesses--there are no phony Western storefronts to amuse tourists here--on their way to the Los Padres National Forest mountains a few miles away. Others stop to rent cross-country skis, shop for antiques or grab a bite to eat.

Diane Gustafson, 45, who owns a shop that rents sleds and cross-country skis, says she understands people from the big cities wanting to visit when the white stuff falls on their town about seven miles northwest of Gorman.

“Snow is God’s gift to us all,” she said.

And on a more practical level, she added that it’s good for business. “I know we’ve had people lined up outside the door,” she said.

Nadine Lutz, owner of two local restaurants, said she gets a steady stream of locals and truckers throughout the year, but it takes the winter visitors to make a profit. “In the summer I don’t make nothing,” she said.

But those feelings of affection for the seasonal visitors are far from unanimous.

“They literally cut the wires of the fences around private property down, drive their vehicles in and go sledding,” complained Robin Willoughby, the owner of the town’s only tanning salon.

Other residents complain that the “snow bunnies” leave trash behind and block traffic by parking on the often congested two-lane road leading to the recreation area at Mt. Pinos, about 10 miles from Frazier Park.

Many visitors don’t make it up to the recreation area, which is at elevation 8,831 feet. By choice or because of overcrowding, they stop instead at the first snow they find.

“We still have people who come up and want to slide down my driveway,” said Judith Waters, who lives at the end of a winding remote road in Pinon Pines, an even smaller community west of Frazier Park.

“I come home at 5 o’clock and find people there,” she said.

The U. S. Forest Service is studying a proposed “Sno-Park” that would greatly expand parking and restroom facilities in the Mt. Pinos Recreation Area. But some believe this will make the problem worse, attracting more traffic on the narrow road to the mountain.

“Basically, what it will do is bring more people up here, but we won’t be able to control them,” said Sue Alberti, a realtor in Frazier Park.

Mark Bethke, district ranger for the Mt. Pinos Ranger District, countered that the Sno-Park would get vehicles off the highway--where they often park--and into the parking lots. Supporters also argue that parking revenues would increase substantially, allowing for better maintenance of the area.

Even if nothing is done here to accommodate visitors, it’s likely the nature of this mountain area will change in the next few years.

Once a place for retirees and weekend cabin dwellers, these communities are gaining popularity among city residents attracted by the small-town attitude, inexpensive housing and clean mountain air.

“It’s not close to the same (now),” said Brian Prosser, 56, a blacksmith shop owner who has lived in Frazier Park for 30 years. He is clad in jeans, a denim jacket and a large black ranch hat.

“Most of the people are commuters now,” he said.

The area’s first high school is scheduled to open next fall, saving students the 45-minute bus trip to Bakersfield. Some residents worry the number of city commuters will skyrocket as a result.

And a bitter debate has erupted over a card gambling club scheduled to open in a few months just east of Frazier Park next to the Golden State Freeway. Residents such as Diane Jordan, an employee at a Frazier Park gift shop, are convinced allowing such businesses into the area will destroy the town’s character.

“I’m afraid because when you have alcohol and gambling, you have people who will come away angry and drunk,” she said.

The club’s owner, Jim Wainright, a resident of Frazier Park since 1963, said he is surprised by the amount of controversy the club has generated. He said the establishment will provide jobs to local residents, and its freeway location will keep traffic away from the town.

“You have to allow for some growth in the community, and by the nature of it there is some demand for a card room,” he said. “I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised when it’s opened. It won’t be a big flash-in-the-pan kind of thing.”

Wainright said he has attended a couple of public meetings where the club was discussed, usually finding 50 to 60 opponents there.

“The people that have attended the meetings . . . are a very small minority of the population on the mountain,” he said. “I would think most of them are probably representing themselves and their church.”

Many longtime residents who came here to get away from it all shy away from debates over the development and growth. Harry and Susan Waters, who moved here 17 years ago from the Santa Clarita Valley, said that if the area gets more settled, they will simply move on.

“This is becoming the ‘burbs for L.A.,” Harry Waters said with disgust.

But Prosser, the blacksmith, said he doesn’t see himself leaving any time soon.

“I don’t like it as much as I did, but wherever you go everything’s changed,” he said. “It’s still relatively good here.”

And in the meantime, there are those who wait for the snow. In Frazier Park, Jennie LaFazia, 16, lives at the Western Village Motel, which she and her mother run.

To avoid the daily ride to high school in Bakersfield, she is a home-schooled student, supervised in her studies by her mom and checking in with school officials weekly.

On a recent, snow-free weekday, the only car in the parking lot of the eight-room motel was the teen-ager’s, but LaFazia said that will change soon.

“We’ll be full,” she said matter-of-factly, “whenever it’s snowing.”