John Newman, president of the Kern River Valley Historical Society. Photos by Catherine Stachowiak
President of the Kern River Valley Historical Society, John Newman, talked about the Kern Valley Museum Thursday, October 17.
The event was held at the Kern Valley Exchange Club meeting and hosted at Paradise Cove Lodge.
Newman told the group that when he became president he determined to use a model of a historical truck as an example. He said “If this museum was a truck it would be old, and slow, but tough as nails. It would be easy to start but hard to stop. A real one of a kind type machine. Kind of quirky and rebuilt many times by many people. Usually overloaded, its whole life spent in the winding dirt roads of the Kern River Valley, still running, useful to this very day. If this museum were a truck it would be a 1925 Graham. It would have its original running gear. And it would have an oak cab and bed beautifully restored by the (Camp Erwin) Owen’s boys.”
In 1953 the Kern River slowly started backing up behind the new Isabella Dam. Newman said the original forks of the Kern and the original Tubatulabal village, and many of the tribe sites, and the towns of Old Isabella, and the town of Old Kernville was lost forever. The Kern River Valley historical society was started to tell the tales buried beneath the Isabella Lake.
In 1958 the society filed as a non-profit. Over the next ten years artifacts were slowly collected. In 1989 the old doctors office in Kernville and then the community poured forth the items collected. In 2017, the society was able to acquire the annex building where a new archiving program was launched.
The society is acquiring a software program to archive their materials. This is important to the board because of how the Havilah Museum was destroyed in the fire. “We do not plan on that happening to the Kern Valley Museum,” he said.
It turns out that every year True West Magazine elects museums and evaluates them to show the best. This year True West Magazine recognized Kern Valley Museum as one of the top regional western museums in the country.
The museum is completely run by volunteers. Out of 358 members the museum has 53 docents, 18 board members, six executive officers, one curator and one archivist, all unpaid volunteers. Last year the Kern Valley Museum welcomed 12,000 visitors. The society host talks, leads field trips, and republishes local history books, which are out of print and new ones. Admission is free to the museum, as are those services. “This only works because of you. The community believes in our history, believes it’s important and it’s worth supporting,” Newman said.
There are over 40 local books, on just the local history, local authors have written, which the museum gift shop has available.
“We are now seeing a resurgence of population,” Newman said. He showed the club members some of the books they sell, including a best seller, about the building of the dam. Authors of the books give the museum their proceeds. There is a book on Rock Climbing in the valley, and a biography on Bob Powers, and a book Beneath the Lake. The museum has the right to reprint some of the books.
The Kern Valley Museum will be holding a spaghetti dinner fundraiser, Nov 9 at 5pm, at the Masonic Lodge.
John Newman, president of the Kern River Valley Historical Society.
