What is the history of Bakersfield, California, USA?

People, Pictures, Old Postcards and Stories From the Past

• Bakersfield was settled in 1858 by a handful of families who had trekked northward through the El Tejon Pass seeking home sites rather than gold.
  The town was named by an early settler, Colonel Thomas Baker, who invited the weary travelers through the valley to rest overnight. These travelers wo...Read MORE...
  
  
  
• The City of Bakersfield was first incorporated in 1873, and in the same year, the County seat was moved from the booming little town of Havilah to Bakersfield.
  Three years later, the town decided to disincorporate. It was not until 1898 that the community incorporated again.
  www.bakersfieldcity.us/ administration/ mayor_council/ history.htm
  
  
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  Nineteenth Street
  
•  1906 - SIX BURIED IN A TUNNEL. ENTOMBED IN KERN RIVER POWER CO.'S SHAFT. FOURTEEN SECTIONS COLLAPSED LIKE CARDS AND BODIES ARE FAR BEYOND REACH.
  Bakersfield, Dec. 7. - Six miners were entombed this morning by the caving of a shaft leading to the big steel pipe conduit which passes through a mou...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  The Bakersfield Californian
  Bakersfield, California
  June 29, 1908
  
• 1910 - March 14 - Lakeview Gusher, the largest U.S. oil well gusher near Bakersfield, California, vented to atmosphere
  
  historyorb.com
  
  
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  In The Oil Fields Near Bakersfield, California (1911)
  
• 1916
  Bakersfield, a banking city, the capital of Kern co., Cal., on the Kern River and on the Southern Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rs., i...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  Kern Co. High School, Bakersfield, California. (1918)
  
  "Bakersfield High School (BHS) is a high school located in Bakersfield, California, United States.
  
  Institutional names and dates of operation:
  
  Kern County High School 1893–1915
  Kern... Read MORE...
  
  
•  1928 - 2 CHILDREN BURN TO DEATH IN CAR. TWO WOMEN RECEIVE PROBABLY FATAL INJURIES WHEN AUTO EXPLODES.
  Bakersfield, Cal., April 12 (AP) - Two children burned to death and two women received probably fatal injuries when their automobile exploded at a ser...Read MORE...
  
  
  
•  1929 - Man Chokes to Death on Cigar Butt
  Bakersfield, Cal. - Steven W. Marshall, 35, chief clerk of a petroleum securities company here, choked to death Sunday night on the butt of a cigar wh...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  Kern County Court House
  
  "Bakersfield, Built 1912, Arch- Frederick Meyers, Contr- Frederick J. Amweg, Damaged by earthquake - 1952."
  courthousehistory.com
  
• 1952 - Bakersfield hit by earthquake, caused over $50 million in property damage
  
  www.worldatlas.com/ webimage/ countrys/ namerica/ usstates/ catimeln.htm
  
  
•  1952 - NEW QUAKE JARS SOUTHLAND, BAKERSFIELD LOSS IN MILLIONS. 2 DEAD, 32 HURT, BUSINESS AREA LEFT SHAMBLES. RESCUERS DIG INTO WRECKAGE, MORE TEMBLORS FEARED.
  Bakersfield, Calif. (UP) - Another earthquake rattled windows in Southern California today as Bakersfield dug out of the debris left by the bomblike e...Read MORE...
  
  
  
•  1960 - March 14 - 14 die in a train crash in Bakersfield Calif
  
  historyorb.com
  March 14, 1960