Bakersfiel
Bakersfield is a city located in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Bakersfield is located relatively equidistant from Fresno and Los Angeles.
This city is the ninth largest in California and fifty-first in the U.S. The city has about 347 000 inhabitants. This is the third largest city in the interior of California after Fresno and Sacramento. Bakersfield is known as Baker's Field, but also as Kern Island.
The city's economy is based on agriculture, mining and oil refining, as well as the production of many products.
Archaeological evidence shows the presence of Native American settlements that date back several thousand years. Yokuts live in Bakersfield today. The tribes hunted antelope, deer, bears and fish. Members of the tribe were skillful hunters of birds.
In 1776 appeared the first European on the territory of Bakersfield today - it was Father Francisco Garces. The Yokuts were prevented from close contact with the Spaniards, but in 1820, Mexican settlers began to occupy territory.
In 1848 were found deposits of gold in California and the San Joaquin Valley had huge amounts of settlers. In 1851 gold was discovered along the Kern River, and in 1865 oil was discovered in the Valley area. Bakersfield was first known as Kern Island. The region often had malaria because of the proximity of the Kern River.
In 1869 the town of Bakersfield received a new name and was named in honor of Colonel Thomas Baker. The gold rush brought him to California. Changing the name of the town happened after a flood leveled the village.
In 1870 the city's population was six hundred people. Bakersfield in 1873 received official city status. In 1880 the city's population was eight hundred and now 2626 people live here. New settlers appear here after migration from Texas and Louisiana.
In 1952 an earthquake happened. The First Baptist Church survived the earthquake and is currently used for commercial purposes. The earthquake started about five o'clock in the morning of the twenty-first in July 1952. It was 7, 3 on the Richter scale. A subsequent earthquake on 22 August with the power of 5, 8 on the Richter scale hit the city center. Many historic buildings were completely demolished.
