Tehachapi Museum & Errea House – Our rich history

A few short blocks away from the Mountain Festival site is the Tehachapi Museum and Errea House Museum. Visiting the museums, along with the Tehachapi Railroad Museum at the Tehachapi Depot, you can get a complete picture of Tehachapi's past. The history museum and house museum are located across the street from each other at 310 and 311 South Green Street.

The history museum is housed in a 1931 Art Deco building that was originally the Tehachapi Branch of the Kern County Library. It now houses artifacts and displays about the colorful past of the area, including displays about the devastating 1952 earthquake, ranching and farming history, natural history, a large, four foot bone from a mammoth that roamed the area in prehistoric times, and other objects and photos.

In the Milano Gallery an exhibit on the Kawaiisu, the local Native American tribe, shows early photographs of the Kawaiisu as they lived in the developing town of Tehachapi, as well as a collection of the baskets made here from the 1880s to the 1930s. A video allows you to hear a fluent Native American speaking in the native language.

Across the street, the Errea House is a restored 1870s Victorian farmhouse moved to its present site around 1900 on log rollers pulled by mules from Old Town, about four and a half miles away. It shows a typical dwelling of a rural family of 1900 to 1930. It was lived in from about 1917 by the Errea family, Spanish Basque immigrants who came here in 1906.

Both museums are open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. For more information, please call the Museum at (661) 822-8152.