History

There are certain parts of Bakersfield that carry lesser-known histories that borderline on the macabre and curious. Some bear mysteries that have yet to be solved while others were laid to rest years ago...

2013 Generations Profiles

The amazing thing about Kern County is that there is always something new to discover about our past. And we at Bakersfield Magazine strive to find out everything we can about Kern’s history; about those pioneers and businessmen that built this community. After all, it’s that entrepreneurial spirit that lives on in the generations of local families and businesses still around today. This is our 3rd annual and on-going chronicle of the people that have deep roots in Bakersfield and Kern County.

When Colonel Thomas Baker’s bones were laid to rest in 1872, they were placed in a very specific location. That’s because Baker, himself, selected the site for his eternal resting place...

Not everyone agrees where or how the Great Fire started but much evidence points to a stove at the Kelsey residence, near 20th Street and Chester, when Mrs. Kelsey’s Sunday dinner transmogrified into a city-wide inferno...

Overlooking a veritable sea of oil derricks, the hills of Bakersfield were once the holding place of some incredible endurance tests. At least, they were when it came to motorcycle racing—an activity that was engaged in a few times a year in decades past. Some of these famous “hill climbs,” however, were more extreme—and far more exciting—than others...

For well over a century, Kern County has been known as a black goldmine. In our earliest days of drilling, oil made more than just a few people rich—it made our entire community rich in a myriad of ways...

Like an eerie ghost ship sailing on a sandy sea, the Muroc-Maru was a full-scale wood, chicken wire, and tar model of a Japanese navy cruiser that stretched over 600 feet. Bombardiers and pilots, alike, used the mock-up for strafing, identification, and skip bombing practice...

The Old West was a time of outlaws, sheriffs, and cowboys roaming the countryside on their trusty horses and saving the occasional damsel in distress. This highly romanticized era has gotten more than its fair share of playtime (“Cowboys and Indians,” anyone?), and it’s also spent a lot of time on the silver screen...

While the United States was facing a Great Depression, two brothers set out to start something great; something of their own. Brothers Oscar and C.L. Tomerlin began building the Bakersfield Inn on the west side of Union Avenue...

This is the second part of our story on Kern’s earliest residents: the Native American people who first called this area home.