Brief
History:
The area was claimed by
the Spanish in 1769, and in 1772 Commander
Don Pedro Fages became the first European
to enter
it, from the south by way of
the Grapevine Canyon.
Kern County was the site of the
Battle of San Emigdio, in March 1824,
between the Chumash Indians of the Santa
Barbara
Mission who rebelled against the
Mexican government's taking over mission
property and ejecting the natives. This
battle
with Mexican forces from Monterey
under the command of Cárlos Carrillo took
place at the canyon where San Emigdio
Creek flows down San Emigdio
Mountain and the Blue Ridge south of
Bakersfield near today's Highway 166. It
was a low-
casualty encounter, with only four
Indians killed, and no Mexicans; the
surviving Indians were pacified and
brought back to
Santa Barbara in June 1824 after a
pursuit and negotiation in which many were
allowed to keep their arms for the return
march over the mountains.
In the beginning, the area that
became Kern County was dominated by mining
in the mountains and in the desert. County
government was created in 1866 with
the county seat in the mining town of
Havilah, in the mountains between
Bakersfield
and Tehachapi.
The flatlands were considered
inhospitable and impassable at the time
due to swamps, lakes, tule reeds and
diseases such as
malaria. This changed when settlers
started draining lands for farming and
constructing canals, most dug by hand by
hired
Chinese laborers. Within 10 years
the valley surpassed the mining areas as
the economic center of the county, and the
county
seat was moved as a result from
Havilah to Bakersfield in 1874. The
discovery well of the Kern River Oil Field
was dug by
hand in 1899.[4] Soon the towns of
Oil City, Oil Center and Oildale came into
existence.
The county derives its name from the Kern
River, which was named for Edward Kern,
cartographer for General John C. Frémont's
1845 expedition, which crossed Walker
Pass. The Kern River was originally named
Rio Bravo de San Felipe by Father
Francisco Garces when he explored the area
in 1776. Kern County was nearly named
Buena Vista County for the large, and now
drained, Buena Vista Lake between
Bakersfield and Taft.
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