By C. M. Halloran, Pacific Ethnohistory Quarterly, Spring 1979 In the spring of 1950, amid Cold War tension and California’s golden postwar optimism, a little-known Norwegian ethnographer named Rolf Thiegurdsen launched one of the most bizarre and forgotten...
Old Sparky: The Devilish Summer Spirit of Kern County Skate Culture There’s a certain time of year in the south end of the San Joaquin Valley when the sun turns the asphalt into a griddle, the air stands completely still, and even the shade feels like it’s given up....
CROSSING OVER: GORDON’S FERRY, CHARON RIVER INDUSTRIES & THE BATTLE FOR OUR SOULS (AND BOARDS)By the Kern River Surf Co Field Department of Regional Myths and Transportation Logistics Before the dam, before the bridge, and long before the Oildale meth gators...
My friends and I argue about which was the more popular destination for weekend high school Bakersfield drag racing. Was it out in the north side of town. Zerker Road, or was it out in the south end past Pacheco and towards...
Kern River Surf Co just added the first items mentioning the F Street Bridge. Kern River Surf Co. has always been about honoring the places that raised us—half real, half remembered. And now, for the first time, we’re releasing gear that pays tribute to one of...