Come - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

growth during the succeeding 12 months.
February 15 saw the dedication of the
Telephone Exchange with numerous
civic and history-minded organizations
participating. The exhibit of a half century
ago was made possible through gifts
of the Pacific Telephone Company and
the Kern County Land Company. This
occasion was followed by the March 15
opening of the 1882 Norris School, utilized
for many years by the land company
as a storage shed prior to its transfer to
the village.
Another building opened to the public
wastheCanfield Ranch Blacksmith Shop
constructed during the 1880s, representing
the oldest such establishment still
remaining in Kern. Equipped with the
myriad tools of the old-time smith, it is
one of the outstanding establishments of
this type to be found in California. Still
another generous gift of the Kern
County Land Company was a ranch cookwagon.
A "field kitchen" pulled by
horses or mules, vehicles like this were
used widely throughout the San Joaquin
Valley in early days for preparing the
meals of large work crews. It was restored
by the museum staff and is stocked
with varied utensils and furnishings
common to its days of service.
Did you ever see a plow that was pull-
ed by 80 oxen? Well, you can —at Pioneer
Village. Its mould board is 11 feet
long by 3 feet deep. It weighs 1800
pounds and is, so far as is known, the
largest animal-drawn plow ever built.
Designed in 1874 by W. G. Souther to
excavate the Kern Island Canal, a project
of the famous Kern County Land
Company, now Tenneco West, Incorporated,
this plow is only one of the
many attractions of the village.
Another display likely to take the eye
of both young and old is the horse-drawn
collection of 16 vintage vehicles typical
of a western town of the past century.
The "stars" of the collection are a shiny
red Concord stagecoach and an elegant
hearse, complete with coffin.
Streets in the village all have an oldtimey
slant. There is Claraville, named
for the most elevated mining camp in the
county; San Emigdio is named after a
Mexican land grant, and Havilah Lane
commemorates the original county seat.
Asphalto was an early oil town; Buena
Vista was the first place name in the
south San Joaquin Valley and Kern, of
course, is the county.
The Museum Alliance is a major factor
in the operation of the village. This supportive
group provides two-score volunteers
who perform restoration work on
the buildings, set up special exhibits in
the structures and furnish lifelike mannikins
in authentic period costumes.
The village is a "veritable enclave of
the past," as Alvin Toffler describes it in
his book, "Future Shock." What the
village is not is as important as what it is.
For instance, it is not a park although it
has trees, shrubs, flowers and grass, nor
is it primarily an entertainment center.
The introduction of ferris wheels, merrygo-rounds
and miniature railroads have
been firmly resisted. All pets, including
a once proposed hippopotamus, have
been opposed.
While preserving buildings and artifacts
of the past, it is, in fact, preserving
a refuge from the present—a present
that may be propelling us a bit too fast
and numbing our senses. We have here
a structured community, artificial it is
true, in which history is frozen between
the years 1860 and 1910. Walking
through it, you sense a different drummer,
one who is slower paced and more
relaxed. We are entrenched, as it were,
in the horse-and-buggy age and proud of
it! •
Desert/Anril 1fl7fl
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