Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 176 - 200 of 314
Andrea (Andy) L. Briscoe, 92, passed away peacefully on July 10, 2019, in her Golden Hills home, surrounded by her family. She was born in Los Angeles, Calif., on Aug. 26, 1926, and was raised by her adoptive parents, Charles and Maude Brady. She graduated from Immaculate Heart High School of Los Angeles in 1943. Andy started her career in 1945 as a grocery checker at Thriftimart-Fitzsimmons in Van Nuys. She held various jobs thereafter including grocery checker at Jim's Fallbrook market in...
On July 30 at approximately 3:15 p.m., officers with the Tehachapi Police Department conducted a probation search at a residence located in the 200 block of East F St. During the search officers located evidence indicating the residence was being used as a place for distributing narcotics. Officers recovered approximately two pounds of methamphetamine, packaging materials, scales and narcotics paraphernalia. Candice Wheat, 37, and Cary Wheat, 40, both of Tehachapi, were arrested on various...
There are four main valleys in the Tehachapi Mountains: Tehachapi, Brite, Cummings and Bear Valleys. Each of them are similar, basin-like valleys entirely ringed by mountains, but each of them have their own characteristics. Brite Valley is the smallest of the four, and is approximately four miles long by two miles wide. It is a diverse and charming little valley with a long history. The first permanent residents of Brite Valley are believed to be Nuwä (Kawaiisu or Paiute) people whose...
Mary Beth Garrison, external affairs and communications manager for Rio Tinto, said that the great borate mine will soon be known for lithium production. Speaking at the July 11 meeting of the East Kern Economic Alliance (EKEA) at the Rio Tinto visitor center in Boron, Garrison said that a new industrial process makes it possible to extract the valuable element from the waste piles (gangue piles) left over from mining borates. "There are 90 years of waste that we can re-process," she said....
In 2019, the American Lung Association ranked Kern County among the bottom three in the nation in air quality, including the worst in the U.S. in short-term particle pollution, second worst in year-round particle pollution and third worst in ozone. At Tehachapi Community Church - United Church of Christ, our faith calls us to care for the earth, which is, “the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.” We recognize that the most disadvantaged among us experience the worst impacts of environmental degradation, inclu...
In the early 1800s, the entire San Joaquin Valley of Central California was populated by the Native Americans of that region. The larger of the population were Yokut, but there were a significant number of alternate tribes in the area. The gold rush and the influx of settlers and miners were to inevitably displace the natural residents of the area. It was not to the Native American's advantage as there was bloodshed and broken treaties with the resistance continuing for decades recording...
The warmer months have arrived in the Tehachapi Mountains, and with the rise in temperatures comes the return of the reptile kingdom. Snakes and lizards are here year-round, of course, but they hibernate when it's cold, typically disappearing around September and October and re-emerging on warm days in March and April. California is one of the most snake-diverse states in the U.S., with a current total of 72 species and subspecies, exceeded only by Texas with 115 species and subspecies. Snakes...
Members of the Tehachapi Community Church - United Church in Christ have devised a set of special services led by congregation members and local community leaders for June through August as our pastor, Reverend Nancy Bacon, takes a sabbatical. Our services take place Sundays at 10:30 a.m., 100 East E Street, Tehachapi and all are welcome. TCC continues the rest of June and through mid-July with a series of guests. On June 23, a member of the Mountain Spirit Zen Center will speak on “Buddhism,” with a Mission moment from the Bakersfield UCC...
The City of Tehachapi is welcoming new major retailers and industries resulting in an estimated boom of more than 550 new job opportunities for our community. According to a recent California Retail Survey, Tehachapi is the 10th fastest growing retail market in the State of California. Tehachapi has become a prime location for new and expanding businesses and education plays an important role in local workforce development. To meet the needs of our thriving community, Cerro Coso Community...
What kind of weather can you expect in Tehachapi during each month? Here's a first look In the last issue of The Loop, I mentioned that I would give a little month-by-month look at weather in the Tehachapi Mountains. So this is the first installment of that monthly summary. Our weather is varied and over the years has often defied accurate prediction, but here's what you can reasonably expect from the first four months of the year. Bear in mind that Tehachapi weather is not always reasonable....
Caution! High up in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains near Mount Whitney, at an elevation of 13,608 feet, the Kern River begins its journey through the mountains to the San Joaquin Valley, gathering snowpack runoff as it descends. The river, known as the North Fork of the Kern River, is impounded at Isabella Lake, where it joins water from the shorter South Fork of the Kern River, which has drained a plateau to the east. The Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Isabella Dam, releases lake...
On Sunday, April 28, the Environmental Ministry Team at the Tehachapi Community Church, UCC, 100 East E St. in Downtown Tehachapi, gave a detailed presentation on recycling. Team members described how waste is now a global problem. In 2013, a study in the U.S. showed we generated about 254 million tons of trash, and recycled and composted about 87 million tons of this material ... equivalent to a 34.3 percent recycling rate. According to National Geographic, “Only 9 percent of recyclable materials actually are recycled. The vast m...
Susan Wiggins, featured speaker at the Thursday, May 2 Kiwanis Prayer Breakfast, is a civic activist whose spiritual convictions help keep the sometimes-bumpy politics in perspective. As mayor of Tehachapi, she is called upon to preside over City Council meetings that welcome public speakers who may be angry and frustrated. She must navigate the simmering tensions among the public and, at times, between members of the Council themselves. Wiggins recognizes that city councils and other civic...
My favorite Tehachapi area back roads for you to explore I often get asked to recommend pleasant drives for people who are newer to the area and I'm happy to do so, since the Tehachapi Mountains have an assortment of picturesque country roads that wind their way through the foothills, valleys, canyons and mountains of this California range. These two-lane back roads are relics from an earlier time – some were even dirt roads for horses and wagons before the arrival of autos and asphalt. S...
The Tehachapi area is defined and delineated by its mountains. Valleys in the Tehachapi Mountains tend to be bowl valleys, ringed by mountain ridges on all sides, rather than open ended V-shaped notch valleys. Our mountains surround us, they help determine our weather and they are a perpetual and comforting backdrop to our lives. It can be confusing to visitors or newer arrivals to know the names of the larger, more distinctive peaks in our area, so here is a profile of some of the more notable...
Six members of Congress from California are campaigning to site the proposed Space Development Agency in the military areas of Edwards Air Force Base and the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. At the March 14 meeting of the East Kern Economic Alliance (EKEA) at the Mojave Air and Space Port, Representative Kevin McCarthy's field rep Gary Medina presented a letter sent from the congresspersons to President Donald Trump, stating the case for the location. "[W]e urge you to consider two bases...
Found an article by my mother Marion Deaver that she wrote about how the Kern-Antelope Historical Society was created. The article was taken from a letter written from Glen Settle to the Conference of California Historical Societies in June, 1961. Settle was the current president of the historical society located in Southeastern Kern County. Settle was responding to a letter written to him to find out more about the newly created group. The group held its first meeting in May 1959 and was...
There's no denying the fact that we live in an amazing place. In a mountain valley that looms over deserts to our east and rich agriculture valleys to our west. Tehachapi was forged from its very beginnings to be unique, set apart from our neighbors, outside of the mold that has been cast around us. You could credit this to science, or a creator, that's your business but I know where I stand and what has been placed in our hands is nothing short of divine. We were provided with God-given...
Legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey had a well-known feature that was heard by millions of Americans on radio stations across the country each week, it was called "The Rest of the Story." His features included more information on stories that were reported in the news media and throughout history. "The Rest of the Story" was Harvey's chance to tell everyone what really happened. It's been grossly-underreported over the last few weeks about what is actually being prioritized by the City of Te...
Editors note: Jon Hammond has been a friend of The Loop's for a long time and we are excited to be the home of his column, Land of Four Seasons. His knowledge of Tehachapi's history, and the flora and fauna that call it home, are bound to make some beautiful stories for our readers. Anyone who has lived here has found themselves in the position of having to answer the question "Where is Tehachapi?" Like most questions, it's easier to ask than to answer. When people would ask my friend and...
Kieffe and Sons Ford dealership is closing its doors on its two locations in Mojave and Rosamond after 59 years in business in Kern County, according to Owner Rick Kieffe. He confirmed the rumor going around that the iconic and longstanding dealership that has been selling cars and trucks for 59 years is in fact closing for good. He stated the cause by simply saying "the Future has arrived." By that he explained that the modern means of purchasing automobiles has changed so drastically that the...
In my never-ending quest to find articles of my mother Marion Deaver to explore East Kern History, I discovered an old press release put out by the Mojave Faculty Association demanding that a study be done to justify the construction of a new gym for Mojave High School. This article was written sometime prior to the school district holding a bond election to fund such a new facility. A new gym was funded by the sale of bonds and construction started in 1977, according to an old photo I found...
Finding and maintaining water resources in the desert has always been a challenge, but in 1979 the Mojave Public Utilities District faced more than one. In the good news/bad news category, the water district learned in mid-1979 that the Feather River Water project had been completed and Mojave residents would soon be drinking local well water mixed with 50 percent of the state water. In my mother Marion Deaver's article for the Desert News, she noted that the completion of the state water...
After participating in an arduous campaign for the last four months I am finally able to breathe again and get back to the things that I love to do, including writing this column about East Kern history, as told by my Mother Marion Deaver. This time I choose to write about two desert field trips taken by some members of the East Kern Antelope Historical Society. While the articles my mother wrote about the explorations are not all that informative I would like to point out some of the...
Ouch – half a percent – The Wasco Union High School District needed 55 percent approval in the Nov. 6 election to pass a $40.5 million bond measure that would have built a new gymnasium and aquatic complex and modernized existing buildings at Wasco High School. The "yes" vote was 54.48 percent, which is .52 percent shy of the required 55 percent. The "no" vote was 45.52 percent. The vote count was 1,765 to 1,475. Two other school districts in Kern County passed school bond measures, both by soli...
