Historical Marker · No. 382
Colonel Thomas Baker
Bakersfield, Kern County · California
Erected by the Kern County Historical Society, the Bakersfield City Council, El Tejon Parlor No. 239 N.D.G.W., Bakersfield Parlor No. 42 N.S.G.W., the Kern County Board of Supervisors, the Kern County Chamber of Commerce, and public donations, 1942
He came to Kern Island in September 1863 holding a franchise that paid in land for draining the swamp, and he drained it, cutting the Kern Island Canal and throwing up levees. None of that is what carries his name. He put ten acres into alfalfa and let travelers graze their stock on it, and the road from Los Angeles to Visalia began calling the stop Baker's Field. Typhoid killed him in November 1872, in the town he had dried out.
What the plaque says
CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL LANDMARK COLONEL THOMAS BAKER CIVIL ENGINEER - LAWYER FARMER - SOLDIER 1810 - 1872 IN 1863 COLONEL BAKER CAME TO THIS LOCATION. A FRIEND TO ALL TRAVELERS, HIS SETTLEMENT BECAME KNOWN AS "BAKER'S FIELD." THIS CIVIC CENTER IS HIS DREAM COME TRUE. HIS MOTTO - "TIME WILL JUSTIFY A MAN WHO MEANS TO DO RIGHT" DEDICATED OCTOBER 18, 1942 KERN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BAKERSFIELD CITY COUNCIL EL TEJON PARLOR NO. 239 N.D.G.W. BAKERSFIELD PARLOR NO. 42 N.S.G.W. KERN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS KERN COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PUBLIC DONATIONS STATE REGISTERED LANDMARK NO. 382
Where it stands
35.37305, -119.01932 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Last Home of Alexis Godey — 0.7 mi
- Garcés Circle — 1.0 mi
- Home of Elisha Stevens — 1.8 mi
- Gordon's Ferry on the Kern River — 4.6 mi