Historical Marker · No. 757
Caliente
Caliente, Kern County · California
Erected by the Kern County Historical Society, Bakersfield Parlor No. 42 N.S.G.W., El Tejon Parlor No. 239 N.D.G.W., and the Kern County Museum, 1961
Caliente was a pause in the track that lasted sixteen months. The Southern Pacific put its construction headquarters at Gabriel Allen's cattle camp in April 1875, and while up to three thousand men, most of them Chinese, worked the grade over Tehachapi Pass, everything else rearranged itself to reach the railhead. Freight for Havilah and the mining towns came down to it, cattle went out from it, and a nine-mile spur of hairpins was cut to meet it. Then the track went over the mountain.
What the plaque says
CALIENTE CALIENTE, FORMERLY ALLEN'S CAMP, WAS RENAMED WHEN THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD ESTABLISHED CONSTRUCTION HEADQUARTERS HERE IN 1875 WHILE TRACK WAS LAID OVER TEHACHAPI PASS. IT WAS A FREIGHTING CENTER FOR HAVILAH AND OTHER MINING TOWNS AS WELL AS SHIPPING POINT FOR CATTLE FROM WALKER'S BASIN AND BEAR MOUNTAIN. DEDICATED JULY 16, 1961 MARKER PLACED BY KERN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BAKERSFIELD PARLOR NO. 42 N.S.G.W. EL TEJON PARLOR NO. 239 N.D.G.W. KERN COUNTY MUSEUM STATE REGISTERED LANDMARK NO. 757
Where it stands
35.29050, -118.62669 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Bealville — 1.3 mi
- Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz — 6.0 mi
- Tehachapi Loop — 8.4 mi
- Point on the Jedediah Smith Trail — 11 mi