Bena Depot

benaDepot: CollectionsKern County, situated at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, was part of a natural corridor for a railroad running between San Francisco and Los Angeles. In the 1870s, the Southern Pacific Railroad began construction southward from San Francisco. In 1873, the railroad founded the town of Delano in northern Kern County, and it reached the Bakersfield area in 1874. A conflict with the city caused Southern Pacific to route the tracks a mile and a half east of downtown Bakersfield, founding the town of Sumner, later known as Kern City and then East Bakersfield. The last obstacle to completing the railroad was surmounting the Tehachapi Mountains. This was overcome with the engineering marvel known as the Tehachapi Loop, which conquered the steep ascent by looping around and crossing over itself. By 1876, the railroad had been completed to Los Angeles.

History:
The depot in Bena was located a few miles to the west of the Tehachapi Loop. Built in 1889, it was a freight and telegraph station that would help route trains through the Loop to avoid head-on collisions.

The Bena Depot, a gift from the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads, was moved to the museum on September 8, 1960. It has been restored to the appearance of a typical passenger and freight station circa 1910.


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