More Bake-n-Bits

Photo courtesy of The San Joaquin Valley Digitization Project

Did you know that had it not been for Colonel Thomas Baker’s reputation of providing feed to traveler's animals, Bakersfield would have been called by its original name - Kern Island? And… Colonel Baker was more involved with the city than just growing alfalfa. He began the basic design of the city in 1866. After traveling all over the U.S., Baker concluded that the usual 66 feet was too narrow for city streets, so he decided our streets would be 82 ½ feet wide and the avenues would be 115 feet wide.

Only 600 people lived in the city at the time