From the album 'Southern California Mines'
Words and Music: John Malcolm Penn ©Radio Flyer Music
For more information: [email protected]

Kern County, Kern River, Kern Lake, and Kernville are all named for artist Edward M Kern, who came through the valley in an expedition with Capt. Walker in the winter of 1845-1846.
In 1853, Richard M. Keyes discovered gold, which over the next few years brought many a would-be millionare. Eventually, in 1858, a Cherokee man named Lovely Rogers was chasing his mule in the area now known as Wofford Heights, when he paused to pick up a rock to throw at his animal, and discoverd gold flecks in it.
The township of Rogersville sprung up adjacent to the newly-found Big Blue gold mine. The name soon changed to Whiskey Flat after Adam Hamilton placed a plank over two barrels and opened a whiskey bar.
After a few years, the name was changed by the people of the growing town to the more respectable name of Kernville. The plaque site at the old Kernville Cemetery was originally the Indian village of Tulonoya.
In the 1920’s with Western movies all the rage, movie companies began to come to the Kern Valley to film and soon there was so much filming activity in Kernville that the town built a special street of false fronts, which they named Movie Street.

Kernville is California State Historical Landmark #132. Plaque Inscription: Called Whiskey Flat until 1864, Kernville was founded in 1860 when whiskey dealer Adam Hamilton moved shop here from more temperate Quartzburg, founded earlier that year. Both camps resulted from a discovery by 'Lovely' Rogers, who found the Big Blue Ledge while tracking a stray mule from the earlier camp of Keysville.