Bakersfield, California

“ The relinquished former portion of Route 178 within the City of Bakersfield is not a state highway and is not eligible for adoption under Section 81. For the relinquished former portion of Route 178, the City of Bakersfield shall install and maintain within its jurisdiction signs directing motorists to the continuation of Route 178 and shall ensure the continuity of traffic flow on the relinquished portion of Route 178, including any traffic signal progression. ”

“ Returning to Bakersfield, you may ride west to the wild cañon of the Kern River, and the mining towns of Kernville and Havilah. The mining industry has never taken the same development south of the San Joaquin River as north. It is probable both that there is less ore and that the ventures have been managed with less skill. ”

“ Two leagues downstream from rancheria no. 1, or about 3 leagues below the mouth of the canyon would have put him at a point roughly 5 to 6 miles east-northeast of Bakersfield, not at the site of the city, as is supposed by Coues (1900, p. 299) . On May 8 he went 3 leagues south-southwest, then turned and traveled 6 leagues southeast and east to the Tehachapi. These distances and directions plotted on the map place him just at the mouth of Tejon Creek. ”

“ Its fine Courthouse, its beautiful new schoolhouse, its pretty homes, its residence streets with their rows of blooming oleanders, pink and white, make it an attractive town. But it must be confessed that it is very hot in Bakersfield, as it is in most towns of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. The most [Pg 88] interesting thing to me in Bakersfield was a leather shop, where I saw handsome Mexican saddles, very intricately and ornately stamped. These are made to order and have any amount of beautiful work upon them. ”

“ Some time later, Baker sold out to Beale and then came South and purchased the San Vicente Ranch. This rancho comprised the whole Santa Monica district and consisted of thirty thousand acres, which Baker stocked with sheep. On a part of this land, the Soldiers' Home now stands.
Hilliard P. Dorsey, another typical Western character, was Register of the Land Office and a leading Mason of early days. He lived in Los Angeles in 1853, and I met him on the Goliah in October of that year, on the way south, after a brief visit to San Francisco, and while I was bound for my new 144 home. ”

“ Coming into Bakersfield from the south, along that long stretch of straight perfect boulevard, you get the effect of an established civilization equal to that found anywhere on the surface of the earth.
Bakersfield itself, showing some signs still of the young, quick-grown city, is up-to-date, bustling, modern. The oil fields across the107 river, with their smoke and grime and activity, testify to the grinding wheels of industry. ”

“ The valley looked fairly thrifty and bright, and was a pleasing introduction to Bakersville, a pretty place in the hills, of some six hundred inhabitants, with two churches, three indifferent hotels, and a court-house. This mountain town, 2550 feet above the sea, is said to have a decent winter climate, with little snow, favorable to fruit-growing, and, by contrast with New England, encouraging to people with weak lungs.
This is the center of the mica mining, and of considerable excitement about minerals. All around, the hills are spotted with “diggings.” ”

“ The difference between the society of Los Angeles and Sacramento City, is wide, and affords a good contrast between the restless, enterprising, utilitarian spirit of the Americans, and the indolent, pleasure-loving spirit of the Californians. With the Americans, in the cities where they are in the majority, business is the uppermost consideration upon all occasions, and profit and loss, and chances of obtaining a competency, the constant subject of thought. With the Californians, the enjoyment of the present, which alone is theirs, is at all times a matter of prime importance ”

“ Between two mountain systems stretches the valley of California, an elliptical, trough-like plain, five hundred miles in length by seventy-five in width; a vast amphitheatre, from whose arena circling terraces rise up to the lofty canopy of a pearl and beryl sky—colossal benches, whereon the gods might sit and watch the strange doings of men below.
Although not gods we some day may be; all gods were once men, or something worse. ”

“ For, following the several spasms of development incident to the ages of gold, of grain, and of fruit, and the advent of the railway incubus, California for a time betook herself to rest, which indeed was largely paralysis. Then, too, those who had come first and cleared the ground, laying the foundations of fortunes, were passing away, and their successors seemed more ready to enjoy than to create. But with the opening of a new century all California awoke and made such progress as was never made before. ”

“ The foreign residents are equally silent, [34] but I suspect that their views were more favorable to the governor than they cared to admit generally to the strong element opposing him. The Californians have weakened their cause by their unfounded and exaggerated attacks on Victoria's personal character, for politically the cause was a strong one. Victoria went far beyond the authority of his office, in refusing to convoke the assembly, in trying an alcalde by court-martial, and in banishing Mexican citizens without forms of trial. ”

“ Mexican citizens residing in the upper territory of the Californias. If the enterprise we undertake were intended to violate the provisions of the laws, if our acts in venturing to oppose the scandalous acts of the actual governor, D. Manuel Victoria, were guided by aims unworthy of patriotic sentiments, then should we not only fear but know the fatal results to which we must be condemned. ”

“ The Amajabes on the Colorado treated the party well, furnishing fresh provisions, and horses stolen from the Spaniards, and two wandering neophytes guided the sixteen Americans over the desert to the mission, where they arrived in December. The trappers gave up their arms, and the leader was taken to San Diego, where he explained his object, and submitted to Governor Echeandía his papers, including passports from the U. S. government, and a diary. The coming of the strangers naturally excited suspicion at first ”

“ The governor recognized the impossibility of immediate action; but in accordance with the policy of his government, [32] with his own republican theories, with the spirit rapidly evolved from controversies with the friars on other points, and with the urgings of some prominent Californians who already had their eyes on the mission lands, he had to keep the matter alive by certain experiments intended to test the feelings and capabilities of the neophytes. ”

“ Thus far San Francisco in the extreme north had been the centre of opposition to Victoria, but the final revolt broke out in the extreme south at San Diego. [35] Some prominent men of the north are of opinion that the abajeños should not have all the glory, but I fear there is hardly enough of it to bear division. José Antonio Carrillo, supposed to be in exile on the frontier, but who came secretly to the vicinity of San Diego in November, was the real instigator of the revolt, seconded by Abel Stearns, another exile ”

“ Echeandía had remained at San Diego at first because exhausted by his journey; and he continued to reside there chiefly because he deemed the climate favorable to his health, but also that as ruler of both Californias he might be nearer Loreto, and because he found nothing in his instructions which absolutely required him to live at Monterey. [20] No transfer of the capital was made; but very soon the people of the south chose to take that view of the governor's residence among them, and were not a little elated at the honor. ”

“ The governor's license to trade is 'opening the door just enough to catch my fingers and jamb them.' March 28th, wishes his intention to remain trading on the coast to be made public. May 8th, speaks of Hartnell's protested bills. May 10th, is doing a good business. The whalers by smuggling injure legitimate trade. S. Diego is the 'centre of hell for strangers;' suspects underhand work in his duties. Will bring no more American cottons to Cal. Is not allowed to touch at Sta Catalina, and is drinking Monterey water. Complains of Echeandía. ”

“ Finally, when the merry-making was over, health restored, and some necessary refitting completed, the strangers embarked for Acapulco May 23d, under the charge of Captain Juan Malarin as chief navigator and bearer of despatches to the city of Mexico, by Argüello's appointment. The Mexican government approved the action of the Californian authorities, and assumed the obligation to pay the wages of the men to the amount of over $90,000. Whether the debt was ever paid is another matter. ”

“ It was during this year that the Californians were excited at the presence and actions of Jedediah Smith's trappers, their first American visitors by the overland route. As Smith arrived in December 1826, the names of his companions who settled in the country have been included in the list of that year, though they left the company of hunters, and some of them arrived, in 1827.
Orders of the Californian officials in 1828 respecting foreigners were of the same tenor as before; applications for naturalization were frequent; many strangers wished to marry Californian wives. ”

“ They immediately fraternized, and were at once the most adroit, wily and experienced embodiment of villainy with which the prospects of a city were ever blighted. They were not men broken down in their profession at home, but the very aristocracy of crime. Too well-skilled to be detected, they had escaped the meshes of the law in their own country, and resorted to California for its superior business prospects. As if to have the organization complete, the convict islands of Great Britain vomited forth a herd that seemed almost festering with crime. This sealed the doom of San Francisco. ”

“ But as matters stood, the rulers and leading citizens understood that any radical and sudden change, effected without the aid of the friars, would ruin the territory by cutting off its chief resources, and exposing its people to the raids of hostile Indians. Thus a conciliatory policy was necessary, not only to the government, but to the friars themselves. The latter, though they knew their power and often threatened to go, were old men, attached to their mission homes, with but a cheerless prospect for life in Spain, fully determined to spend the rest of their days in California if possible. ”

“ On Rich bar of Feather river, a wild rocky region, were gathered in 1852 a community consisting for the most part of experienced miners, old Californians they might almost call themselves, having been in the country during those days of rapid development, many of them for the full period of three years. ”

“ On the supreme bench and presiding over the district and county courts, particularly in the cities and more thickly populated parts, have been from the first occupation of the territory by citizens of the United States until the present day, as able and erudite jurists, men of as broad and enlightened intellects, as might be found elsewhere in Europe or America. Some were dissipated, but for the most part they were men of integrity. Even during the most lawless times there were sitting on the judicial bench of California men whose purity of life and character was never questioned. ”

“ On receipt of the constitution, Argüello at once summoned the diputados to assemble. The rivers were so swollen by the rains that the southern members could not come: but on the 26th of March the four Castros, with the president and secretary, met to ratify the new organic law of the nation. The document was read by Secretary Torre, and the oath was taken by governor and diputados. Then the constitution was read again in the plaza, and Argüello administered the oath to the garrison drawn up under arms, and to the assembled citizens of all classes. ”

“ We have had many good men in California as spiritual teachers, many saintly men, many true patriots, many of marked talents. No man exercised greater or more beneficial influence during: a crisis which was to determine the destinies of the state than Thomas Star King, who spared neither voice nor pen to save the republic from dissension. ”

“ A street in San Francisco, a fort inside its harbor, and a town and county in Oregon were named for Colonel Baker. Editorials, petitions, and projects for a statue appeared in San Francisco newspapers almost until 1900. Tombstones and monuments are of the earth's changing surface; whatever is worth remembering of Colonel Baker is secure in the history of California and in the immortal story of Abraham Lincoln. ”

“ I have no doubt the plan was in some manner to insist, with the aid of the diputacion, on the carrying-out of the secularization scheme. Efforts to convene that body were continued all the spring and summer. At first the ayuntamiento of Monterey, aided to some extent by that of San José, was the medium of appeal, though the governor in February assembled that body to explain how inopportune had been the petitions of Alcalde Buelna, and warned the municipal authorities not to meddle with matters that did not concern them. ”

“ California's urgent need for an organic law was presented, as also the necessity of establishing courts of justice, and regulating the administration of finance. It was complained, moreover, that a great injustice had been done in the promotion of Mexican officers like Zamorano and Pacheco to captaincies over the heads of Californians who had grown gray in the service. Carrillo requested the territorial diputacion to petition congress for the reforms for which he was working, including the appointment, or rather paying, of two competent teachers. ”