Some History of Bakersfield

Kern County Turning Points

Bakersfield is an area in California that expanded rapidly due to it’s industrial boom with land use in petroleum-based industries, livestock raising, and the mechanized farming of potatoes, grapes, alfalfa, cotton, and grain.  The oil industry and wine producing industry have always been big in Bakersfield. 

Bakersfield, a city of Kern county, founded by Thomas Baker  in 1869 (who later died of Typhoid in 1872,) began as a huge mining pull when Gold was discovered in 1853.  The Southern Pacific Railroad ran to Bakersfield giving rail service in 1874 but bypassed the city only to have the Santa Fe Railroad go through in 1898. 

Oil was discovered in 1867 establishing a huge boom in the oil field industry even still seen today.  The first newspaper of Kern County was 1866 and the post office established in 1868.

200 acres were bought up to establish an airport in 1925. 

In 1940 an aircraft factory is established by Lockheed.

The first Drive-In movie theatre opened in 1945.

In 1954 Uranium is discovered 30 miles northeast of Bakersfield.

In 1988, the space shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base, located in Kern county.

In 2012, President Barack Obama dedicates Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz near Keene, the home of late United Farm Workers union co-founder Cesar Chavez, as a national monument.

In 2015, low oil prices hit the Kern County economy hard and prompt more than 2,500 local oil-related layoffs.

Back end of the Haberfeld Building on 17th Street in downtown Bakersfield

Back end of the Haberfeld Building on 17th Street in downtown Bakersfield, in back of the old location of the Employment Lawyers Group, Bakersfield. The Haberfeld Building was built either in 1924, 1927, or 1928 depending on which source you look at.

This is the outside of the Kern County Superior Court. The building is located in downtown Bakersfield. There are three civil court rooms inside that hear employment related lawsuits.Our employee lawyers have handled quite a few separate lawsuits out of the Superior Court in Bakersfield. We even had a class action here last year that settled.

Proof that Bakersfield is rapidly expanding.

Proof this intersection is photo enforced, uses arrows for left turns, and modern retail giants can be seen everywhere. Proof two, half the vehicles are pickup trucks and the other half are sports sedans which is really the telltake in this part of town near the corporate/law firm district/State University crossing old time Stockdale Highway. Our law firm location has a new office now at: 5401 Business Park South, Suite 214, Bakersfield, CA 93309.