Old Town

James Williams put up a hotel here in the 1860s and surveyed the townsite around it, calling the place Williamsburg; later it went by Tehichipa. Then the Southern Pacific laid its station a few miles east at the summit in 1876, and the valley's people went to it. What stayed behind kept the ground and lost the name. Tehachapi is now the town by the tracks, and this settlement is called Old Town, which is not a name so much as a comparison. The bronze casts it in quotation marks.

What the plaque says

"OLD TOWN" THE OLDEST SETTLEMENT IN TEHACHAPI VALLEY, KNOWN AS "OLD TOWN," WAS ESTABLISHED HERE DURING THE 1860'S. IT WAS LONG AN IMPORTANT STATION ON THE ROAD BETWEEN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. THE COMMUNITY BEGAN TO DECLINE WHEN RESIDENTS GRADUALLY REMOVED TO NEARBY GREENWICH, LATER RENAMED TEHACHAPI, AFTER COMPLETION OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD IN 1876. CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 643 PLAQUE PLACED BY CALIFORNIA STATE PARK COMMISSION IN COOPERATION WITH THE KERN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, EL TEJON PARLOR NO. 239, NATIVE DAUGHTERS OF THE GOLDEN WEST, AND KERN COUNTY MUSEUM, JULY 27, 1958.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Tehachapi Loop — 4.2 mi
• Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz — 6.7 mi
• Oak Creek Pass — 8.3 mi
• Tomo-Kahni — 8.8 mi