Kern County Museum & Pioneer Village

The Kern County Museum on Chester Avenue is an outdoor history museum with more than 50 restored and relocated historic structures spread across 16 acres. The collection includes a Victorian-era house, a 1920s Sears catalogue home, a one-room schoolhouse, a working oil derrick from the early industry, early petrol station, and a range of commercial and agricultural buildings that trace the development of the Central Valley from the 1860s to the mid-20th century. The structures are mostly authentic originals, moved here when they faced demolition elsewhere in the county.

The museum gives you a concrete sense of what the San Joaquin Valley actually looked like before the modern agricultural-industrial complex took over. It takes 2–3 hours to walk through thoroughly. There is also an indoor gallery covering the history of the Yokuts people, the Dust Bowl migration, and the oil industry. The Pioneer Village section is the main draw, but the indoor collection deserves time too. Open Tuesday through Sunday; closed Monday.

things to do museum
A story
The museum's oil industry collection reflects a history that reshaped California. The Kern River oilfield, discovered in 1899, made Bakersfield one of the most productive oil towns in the American West. At its early 20th-century peak, the fields around the city were producing more oil per day than most countries. The wooden oil derricks that still dot the landscape around Bakersfield are among the last reminders of an industry that defined the city for a century.