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Welcome to Bakersfield!The Bakersfield area is diverse and has something for everyone. For the adventurous, try a thrilling white water rafting trip down the Kern River or soar high above the San Joaquin Valley in a hot air balloon. For relaxation, take a trip back in time at the Kern County Museum and recapture a bit of local history. If golfing, biking or hiking is your passion, there are a wide range of facilities, trails and much more in and around the city and in close proximity. A Bit of History... Eight thousand years ago, the Yokuts Indians first settled in the rich and fertile valley that eventually would become Bakersfield. During the last decades of the 18th century, Spanish missionaries and explorers entered the area, including Father Francesco Garces who arrived at the Indian village of Wailo in 1776. In the 1840s, Captain John C. Fremont named the mighty whitewater river tumbling through the canyon in honor of artist and topographer Lt. Edward Meyer Kern. The discovery of gold in the bed of the Kern River in 1851 attracted the first wave of pioneers. Four years later, the discovery of oil brought more and more people, growth, development and diversity into the area. Early settler Colonel Thomas Baker purchased a 170-acre parcel and began land reclamation in 1873. Fencing off ten acres of alfalfa to feed the horses of travelers, Baker was later appointed to survey the area for a formal township in 1869. It was suggested that the new town be called Bakersfield because it was already known to wayfarers as Baker's field. |
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