Insiders Guide - A to Z

Written by Donna McCrohan Rosenthal

A

“And Let the Heavens Fall” – The first new animated Star Trek episode produced in 35 years, written and animated by Ridgecrest Star Trek expert Curt Danhauser. Presented as a fan film for free viewing online, the half-hour tale appears on DanhauserTrek.com.

A. Brown Store – Built by Andy Brown in the 1880s in Weldon, along the South Fork of the Kern River, it had a post office, bank, and boarding house, as well as a mill that still stands, to the delight of photographers. Brown’s ranch covered 14,000 acres. Brown operated stores in Havilah and Old Kernville.

Andre, Natalie Towle – The first lady radio announcer in Washington, DC, during WWII, moved to Ridgecrest in 2001. Her DJ career began the night the Japanese capitulated. When her boss at WWDC had a little too much to drink, she and another woman decided to go on the air as the “Scrub Women.” It led to a steady job.

Antiques and collectibles – Wonderful shops abound in parts of Tehachapi, Olde Towne Ridgecrest, bordering Circle Park in Kernville, and some 200 vendors converge on the Kern County Museum for Bakersfield’s Old Time Peddler’s Faire (October 10-11 this year).

Apricot mallow – Gray shrub with gray leaves and striking apricot or red-orange colored flowers, it blooms prominently along roadsides such as Brown Road near Inyokern and Hwy 14 between Mojave and Jawbone Canyon during the colorful wildflower season.

B

Black Gold: The Oil Experience – Kern County Museum’s exceptional hands-on exhibition about the geography, geology, technology, and history of California oil.

Bob Powers Gateway Preserve – Proposed conservation project for rare Sierra wetlands, currently in the planning stages. It will honor the memory of the renowned Kern River Valley historian.

C

Centennials – Kern County will see plenty of 100th birthday celebrations in 2009. Tehachapi incorporated on August 13, 1909. Inyokern observes its 100th on September 26. The California Writers Club began among Jack London and friends in 1909 in the Bay Area; today it has 16 branches, with two of them in Kern County—Writers of Kern in Bakersfield and the East Sierra Branch, or Ridge Writers, in Ridgecrest.

Chipper Days – The Kern River Valley Fire Safety Council, Kern County Fire Department, and Camp Erwin Owens have partnered for free chipper mulching for residents, businesses, and other groups who collect potentially hazardous branches and shrub materials “so long as the work is done for fuel reduction and the creation of defensible space, and the event is coordinated to make a reasonable day’s work for the crew.” Find instruction online at krvfiresafecouncil.org.

Cookies at the Clock Tower– Yuletide party thrown on the second Sunday of each December at the Kern County Museum; follows the KC Museum’s Holiday Lamplight Tour which takes place on the first Saturday in December.

Cow pie “not molded into a spherical shape, 100% organic” longest toss – Steve Urner flung a cow pie 226 feet during the August 14, 1981 Mountain Festival in Tehachapi, earning himself a Guinness World Record.

D

Depot – Constructed in 1904, the Tehachapi Depot burned down in June 2008. The “Back on Track” campaign aims not only to restore it, but to add an orientation center for the Tehachapi Loop and the famous Stokoe Collection of phones, lamps, items from the stationmaster’s desk, functioning outdoor mechanical signals, and other railroad memorabilia.

E

Eggs – McMurtrey Aquatic Center scatters some 6,000, both floating and underwater, for its annual Eastertime EGGstravaganza.

F

Flight of the Bumblebee – China Lake tested more than 200 Bumblebee missiles over the sands of China Lake between 1945 and 1952.

G

Globally Important Bird Areas – The Kern River Preserve achieved this designation for its protection of habitats of populations such as the western yellow-billed cuckoos, southwestern willow flycatchers, summer tanagers, Kern red-winged blackbirds, and migrating turkey vultures.

H

Hari-Kari, Oscar’s Nightmare, Royal Flush – Rapids that deliver thrills and adventure for kayakers on the Kern River, famous for its whitewater challenges.

I

Inland Space Port – Designation granted to Mojave Airport in Mojave for its emerging aerospace projects.

J

Jet fuel from pond scum – China Lake scientists have researched alternative energy solutions such as grass clippings and pond scum. They produced the webisode “Biofuel—Turning T-shirts and Table Scraps Into Jet Fuel” (www.navair.navy.mil/nawcwd and www.ndep.us) as part of the National Defense Education Program.

K

Kern Shakespeare Festival – The annual October event at Bakersfield College performs Shakespeare with panache, for example the 2002 “The Merry Wives of Windsor” staged with a “Pirates of the Caribbean meets Peter Pan” feeling. The KSF couples the talent of professional actors and directors with students and local amateurs (tickets: 661-395-4326).

Kit fox – Curious, cute, brown-eyed little fellow with a black-gray coat and big ears. The San Joaquin kit fox lives in the Central Valley and foothills while the desert kit fox prefers the Mojave Desert.

L

Levan Institute for Lifelong Learning – Bakersfield College program primarily for people over 55 but welcoming all adults with an interest in “continuing to gain knowledge throughout their lives.” Established with a $5.7 million gift from Bakersfield dermatologist Dr. Norman Levan, Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Medicine at USC Medical School, it gives courses that cover astronomy, drawing, gardening and plant care, music, personal finance, photography, soapmaking, silversmithing, wine appreciation, and other topics (bakersfieldcollege.edu/levaninstitute).

Liyikshup – The Chumash people revered the summit of Mt. Pinos, the highest peak in the Los Padres National Forest, as the center of the world. They called it “Liyikshup”— the point where everything is in balance.

M

Mojave Desert in space – With NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base and the nongovernmental Mojave Spaceport, the Mojave Desert has been the site of most of NASA’s experimental aeronautic programs.

N

Navy’s largest single turf – The Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) occupying China Lake’s 1.1 million acres encompasses 38 percent of U.S. Naval land holding worldwide.

Nuui Cunni Native American Cultural Center – Interactive, intercultural museum run by the Paiute Shoshone tribe in Lake Isabella. It displays artifacts from the Anasazi, Navajo, and Paiute people. On craft days, Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., visitors learn to fashion their own souvenirs. “Nuui Cunni” means “our house” in Paiute-Shoshone.

O

Old Town Kern – Owing its origin to the Southern Pacific Railroad, the East Bakersfield area formerly called “Sumner” includes the Baker Street Library, the Bimat House, Earl (California Governor and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) Warren’s home, the Education Center, the French Shop, the Noriega House, the Tejon Theater, and the railroad depot at Baker and Sumner streets, among other architecturally and historically significant structures.

Osdick – Original name of the gold and silver mining camp that became Red Mountain in 1929, near Randsburg and Johannesburg on Hwy 395.

P

Pacific Crest Trail – One of the first scenic trails authorized by Congress in 1968 under the National Trails System, it runs 2,650 miles from Canada to Mexico and cuts through Kern County at Walker Pass, the Chimney Peak Wilderness, and the Kern River near Kennedy Meadows.

Pakanapul – Aboriginal language spoken by the indigenous people of Kern River’s South Fork—taught at the Nuui Cunni Native American Cultural Center in Lake Isabella.

“Planet Boron” – Brochure from the Twenty Mule Team Museum in Boron that describes uses for boron and borates in products ranging from ceramics and glass to pool chemicals, detergent, footballs, and Play-Doh.

Projected population – Bakersfield’s current 322,500 is expected to increase to around 400,000 by 2015 and almost 425,000 by 2018.

Q

Quarnstrom, the Honorable Ellen Miller – Her appointment as judge of the Weedpatch Judicial District in 1957 made her Kern County’s first female judge. Previously she had distinguished herself as Bakersfield’s first known female attorney.

R

Richardson, Arvin – Early pioneer, postmaster, and merchant described by some sources as “the first storekeeper in the colony.” People began buying property about 15 miles southeast of Bakersfield circa 1907; incorporated in 1960, the area took the name “Arvin” as a tribute to Richardson.

S

Seeing stars and meteor showers – Hanning Flat, Isabella, Keyesville, and Onyx rank among the finest Northern Hemisphere spots for viewing the heavens at night according to the International Dark Sky Association. The most favorable conditions occur with a new moon or no moon, and the worst during a full moon.

Sirretta Street Swap Meet – Popular mile-long yard sale held each May in Kernville. For details, contact the Kernville Chamber of Commerce, 800-350-7393 or email kernvillechamber@lightspeed.net.

Six Million Dollar Man – Test pilot Bruce Peterson’s M2-F2 crashed on Rogers Dry Lake near the Flight Research Center at Edwards on May 10, 1967. Peterson survived, and footage of the accident turned up as the opening sequence of the 1974-78 TV show The Six Million Dollar Man.

Solar Energy Technology Degree – Cerro Coso Community College initiated this degree and certificate program during the 1978-79 academic year.

T

Tails – The new attraction in the Discovery Corner of Ridgecrest’s Maturango Museum exhibits tails from tortoises to elephants in an entertaining, educational setting.

Top employers, Kern County’s – Edwards Air Force Base (18,000 employees), County of Kern (10,342), Grimmway Enterprises (6,500) and China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (6,388) according to recent figures.

Tropico Hill – The one-time mining camp in Rosamond now enjoys considerable success as a film location.

Trouble with Women, The – Romantic comedy from Paramount starring Ray Milland, Brian Donlevy, Teresa Wright, and Lloyd Bridges. As the premiere feature at the Tejon Theater on June 17, 1947, it grossed a grand total of $193.

U

Uhalt, Bernard Jr. (“Frenchy”) – Bakersfield-born son of Uhalt’s Blacksmith shop founders. Frenchy dazzled at football at Kern County Union High, earning himself scholarship bids from USC, Notre Dame, and Fordham, but he declined them in favor of a baseball career. He went on to play professionally for the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks, Hollywood Stars, and San Francisco Seals, followed by the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, and Milwaukee Brewers. Inducted into the Bob Elias Hall of Fame, the Bay Area Hall of Fame, and the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame, Frenchy Uhalt died in 2004 at the age of 94.

Ulexite – AKA “the TV rock” because it projects images to the top of its surface, giving the appearance of a television screen. Visitors to Boron’s Twenty Mule Team Museum frequently get free samples.

V

Village Fest, Vintage cars, VW bugs, and buses – Held annually at the Kern County Museum. Village Fest boasts samples of over 100 different brews plus live entertainment (Sept 7, 2009), the Vintage LTD Car Club transforms the grounds into memory lane with over 150 pre-1959 autos (Sept 20, 2009), and hundreds of Volkswagens and their owners gather for food, fun, and car-related games (forth weekend in March 2010).

W

Wind Tech Boot Camp – Offered by Cerro Coso Community College and taught at California City High School, the course trains technicians for careers in wind energy— one of the few industries that has immediate openings for qualified candidates.

X

Xeriscape – Landscaping with a view toward water conservation, and in plots susceptible to drought. The Indian Wells Valley Water District underscores the concept with the motto “Brown is green.” “Xeros” is Greek for “dryness.”

Y

Younger, Betty H. – This Bakersfield sculptor won a Silver Olympic medal for “The Flame” in the 2000 U.S. Olympic Committee Sport Art Competition and first place Individual Artist for the Beautiful Bakersfield Award in 2003. Her piece “Time Capsule 2020” was commissioned in 2004 for the Bank of America in Bakersfield.

Z

Zombietown, Chopper Chicks in – 1989 comedy-horror cult classic shot in and around Randsburg, with Billy Bob Thornton in an early role.

Article appeared in our 26-3 Issue - August 2009

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