Kern Valley Museum

Having dinner at La Bikina. Estephania has done so much work! The patio is wonderful with outdoor lighting and a soothing fountain. We really enjoyed our dinner!

Well, we finally had our docent meeting and informed them of our new COVID regimen. We're getting organized and the board will decide when we will open. Over the year, we have lost many docents!! We lost 22 people and 70 slots that they worked in!! Most of these are due to poor health, moving away, etc. A few will return when they feel more comfortable. So we will change our hours until we build back up. When we open, our hours will be 11 am to 3 pm Thursdays through Saturday. If you would like to docent, please private message us. We can train you! It is fun and easy!! You meet the nicest people from all over the world!! We hope to hear from you!!

Calling all docents (and potential docents)!! We'll be calling you soon to see who is available to docent. If you're not a docent and would like to be a docent, private message us with your name and phone number! We'll be taking that information to the April 27th board meeting to develop our plan for opening. We know some of you aren't quite comfortable to docent yet. We understand! Those of you who are ready, we hope you'll want to work an extra day. We'd like to open on our usual schedule. Cross your fingers! We hope to see you soon!

Dianna and Ron drove out to Miracle Hot Springs to solve a "mystery." The Hot Springs Angel's found an old refrigerator buried there. Gary Ananian from the Kern River Conservancy and some Forest Service guys dug it up only to find another one! He wanted Dianna's opinion on it's age. She talked Tim Kelly, the Forest Service archeologist into coming too. After a little bit of digging on Tim's part, we found no other stuff (like old bottles, pottery shards etc.). We figure... that's all there was. It wasn't an ice box as we originally thought. It's a chest refrigerator or freezer. Because the site did not have other artifacts, Gary got the OK to dig this one up and restore the hillside to original condition. Lesson on the law: Artifacts over 50 years old--of any kind--should not be removed from government land. Check with the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management. That means arrow heads, bottles, pottery shards, and even old refrigerators! There may be a good archaeological story there and the fines are huge for noncompliance!! This time, not so much. It was a nice morning trek to the river though! See more

Last night's movie was great fun! Here's a flyer for the movie in May. The outdoor scenes in Cattle King were pretty much all filmed here. The Neil house and other South Fork ranches are prominent in the film. There are also scenes next to the Kern River. We'll also be showing another Chuck Barbee interview. This time it's Alice Rankin Beard! We hope to see you the first Friday in May!!

Don't forget! Tomorrow night is the drive-in movie at the rodeo grounds! It'll be a fun night!

The Nuui Cunni needs our help. Please donate!

The drive-in movie was great fun tonight! Despite being a holiday, we had a good turnout. Next month, we'll be showing another Chuck Barbee interview with Alice Rankin Beard and Cattle King with Robert Taylor. Cattle King was filmed in South Fork country and several local ranches are in the movie. The real star is the Neill house before it was moved. The house is now on Tobias Street. You'll be surprised how many local landmarks that you'll recognize!!

Thank you Art Moore for the great shackles and handcuffs From the Kern County Jail!! They are from the 1890s to 1900s. They look great with the key from the old Kernville jail, otherwise known as Pascoe's Hotel!!!

Just a reminder, this is next Friday! Hope to see you there!!!

Thanks to Dam Corner for the menu shout out! We hope to be open soon!

We're excited to co-sponsor this safe event! This will be great fun!!

The mining display is almost completed!!! I need to print a couple of pictures and frame an explosives ledger and we're on to the next project! Don't pay any attention to the frame with the figs. That's where the ledger goes! It's coming out pretty well!

Things are moving right along! We're almost finished with the Tubatulabal display. There are just a couple of small things to do yet. We're starting on the mining display now.

We're on the home stretch on our display remodels! Here's a peek at the new farming and ranching display! Just a few small tasks in all of the displays and we'll be done!

We've made great headway on the renovations. We're almost ready to put artifacts back in. John Newman, Roy Fluhart and Ron Anderson have done such great work! These guys aren't on Facebook, so if you see them around Kernville, give them major kudos!!

We had a fun morning in the pack station. The Rotary Club was filming a "virtual concert" for a future fundraiser. This morning, Banshee in the Kitchen and the Kern River Band played. We snuck away from our labors inside to listen for a bit. Chuck and Tammi Barbee were the film crew. Watch for this fundraiser! It should be great! Rotary does so much for our Valley!

It's been a pretty rough 2020. We hope 2021 will be much better! We're anxious to see you when it's safe. In the meantime, we're working to make our awesome museum even better for your enjoyment!

Great article about the Vaughn Bell coming to the museum!

Mike Post, these pictures may help you with your ore cart. As far as I can tell, much of the undercarriage of yours is missing. Let us know if we can be of any more help.

Since we're not opening any time soon, we've decided to do the totally insane! We have emptied out the gold, ranching and Tubatulabal displays. The old, ugly paneling will be replaced and we will be amending all three displays! We'll need some donations to buy wood siding and other supplies since our budget has been frozen long ago. Any little bit helps! Thank you John Newman, Roy Fluhart, Ron Anderson, and Charlie Gregory for being the labor force along with Dianna!

We had hoped to open the gift shop each Saturday in December, but due to new COVID restrictions, that will not be possible. We had also hoped to open the museum in January. That, too, probably won't happen. At least we will have our plan ready whenever we are allowed to open! Please be safe!

Have a safe and healthy Thanksgiving!