Oildale Celebrates its Centennial

How YOU Can Participate!

2009 is the Year of Oildale: at least this is the year Oildale is celebrating its 100^th anniversary. What’s so special about Oildale? In May 1899,  brothers James and Jonathan Elwood discovered oil on the north bank of the Kern River in what came to be called Oildale.  By October of that year, Bakersfield had become a boomtown, and a trading center developed around Oil Center, renamed Oildale in 1916. Schools, stores, a post office, churches, and oil lease housing sprang up, and by 1912, there were some 10,000 workers in the oil industry there.

What does Oildale have to do with us? CSUB is collaborating with the Oildale Centennial project to deepen our understanding of this community, which has been such an important part of local history for over a century. From the oil industry, and Basque sheepherders, to a WWII spy program at Minter Airfield, and the development of a unique style of country music called the Bakersfield Sound, Oildale has contributed enormously to the culture, development and economy of this region. Oildale has also produced several individuals who have made their mark nationally, including author Gerald Haslam (Workin’ Man Blues, among others), Richard Cook (CEO of Disney) Merle Haggard of country music fame, and Kevin Harvick (top 10 in NASCAR).

As part of our work with the Oildale Centennial project, the CSUB History Department is making plans to sponsor a conference on Oildale’s history in fall 2009.  We are thus encouraging students, especially those with an interest in local history and in research, to sign up for HIST 499 with Prof. Jeanne Harrie (Chair) for spring. (Graduate students will sign up for HIST 699.) You may earn up to five units of credit for your work, though fewer units may be negotiated. Ultimately you might have the chance to present your work at our fall conference! See the announcement in this newsletter about how to sign up.