Whitewater

To tell the truth, I had never heard of the Kern River, nor did I have any idea where it was until about two weeks before going there.

The 280-mile drive from Las Vegas consisted mainly of open desert and blink-of-an-eye towns. However, all that changed upon entering the valley, neatly tucked away in the southern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

I was sold on the place upon first sight. Each hillside seemed to tell a different story, each bend in the road turning the page, and while the communities were no more metropolitan than the ones passed on the way up, their laid-back charm was immeasurably brighter.

While Kenny Bushling, president of Kern River Tours, estimated only 10 percent of the region's tourist traffic comes from Southern Nevada, those that make the trek undoubtedly fall in love with the place. Bushling, who also teaches U.S. history at Kern Valley High School, is a 1986 graduate of Las Vegas' Chaparral High School and has been guiding people down the river for 15 years.

It seems our governor has also taken a liking to the region. Bushling revealed that Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn has a house on the Upper Kern River, about three miles north of Kernville. Before heading back to Las Vegas, I gave a half-hearted attempt to find the governor's place before coming up empty. Personally, I was wondering if he had an extra room.

Upon arriving in the Kern River Valley the night before tackling the rapids, I was greeted by a roadside sign informing passersby that 210 lives have been claimed by the river since 1968. After doing some quick math, I wondered if 6 lives per year sounded like a little or a lot.

I asked Bushling about the number of fatalities. He said most of those deaths were attributed to drunken stupidity or simple carelessness, which eased any reservations I may have had about riding the river.

For whatever reason, I expected the climate to be much milder than in Las Vegas. However, I was very wrong. With an elevation of about 2,500 feet, the temperature was approaching 100 degrees the day of my 13-mile, one-day trip.

The ideal time for a trip down the Kern is from the end of April until around Labor Day, with the apex of the season being during May. Since the Lower Kern River, which flows from Lake Isabella, is dam-controlled, the flow during the summer months is always accommodating for rafting or kayaking. According to Bushling, the Lower Kern usually flows anywhere from 500 to 1,500 cubic feet per second. During my trip, which was in late June, the river was at about 1,350, which seemed plenty fast, but Bushling said the river can peak around 4,500, although he said it very rarely exceeds 3,500.

The area encompassing the Kern River Valley has quite a rich history. To tell the truth, I had never heard of the region, nor did I have any idea where it was until about two weeks before going there. Once there, however, I found the valley's story as plentiful as its beauty.

Native Americans inhabited the Kern River Valley as early as 100 A.D. The local tribe, related to the Shoshone, was called the Tubatulabal. Some descendants still live in the South Fork area.

Capt. Joseph Reddeford Walker is believed to have been the first non-Indian traveler to enter the Kern River Valley, coming from the east along the South Fork of the river in May 1834. He was seeking the northernmost passage through the Sierra Nevadas, now known as Walker Pass in his honor, that had the least amount of snow.

In the winter of 1845-46, Walker led a party that included John C. Fremont and topographer and artist Edward M. Kern through the valley. Kern would become the namesake for Kern County, Kernville and the Kern River Valley.

When the gold rush hit California, the valley would soon be raided by fortune hunters. Although a few men struck it rich, the region unearthed little success for the large majority. That didn't stop others from coming, though. The original town of Kernville was established then, along with other communities such as Keyesville, Rogersville and Havilah, and thousands of people began to populate the valley.

By the end of the century, mining had been exhausted and ranching became the main industry within the valley. It was at this time that communities such as Bodfish and Isabella formed.

It was during the early 1900s that modern technology really began to hit the valley. The Kern River was harnessed to provide hydroelectric power, and Hollywood soon became fixated on the valley's beauty and variety of settings. At one period, there were so many movies shot within the region that a special street of stage fronts, dubbed Movie Street, was built in Kernville. John Wayne, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry are just some of the legends who used the valley for many of their films. The valley remains a favorite setting for the motion-picture industry, appearing in more than 300 feature films, and was used as currently as the remake of "Planet of the Apes" and "Jurassic Park III."

Lake Isabella, fed by the Upper Kern River, was created in 1953 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after being authorized nine years earlier in order to conserve the river's water, use it for hydroelectric power and help irrigate the San Joaquin Valley's farmland. However, as a result of the project, the towns of Isabella and Kernville were rendered underwater. Some residents moved north and created the current Kernville, Isabella was rebuilt to the south in what was known as Hot Springs Valley and rechristened Lake Isabella and others moved west to the Irvin Wofford Ranch in formed what is now Wofford Heights.

The Kern Valley Museum in Kernville, built and maintained by volunteers with the Kern Valley Historical Society, proved to be one of the surprise highlights of my trip. It provided an extensive look into the region's natural and industrial past. I highly recommend making it a part of any trip to the area.

... Back to the Kern River story

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