Railroad Jail

southernpacificjail: Southern Pacific Jail

Approximately 3,000 men labored on railroad construction up and over the Tehachapi Mountains in the 1870s.

It took over three years for the line to be completed through Kern County. As the railroad slowly progressed through the county, settlements sprang up along the track to supply the hungry and thirsty railroad workers. In the fall of 1875, Caliente, a rowdy temporary railhead, was described as “infested with a numerous horde of thieves and robbers, comprising the worst class of hoodlums in the country.”

The railroad sought to alleviate the crime problem with a jail, which could be put on a train car and moved where needed.

This Southern Pacific jail was one of the first buildings donated to the museum in the late 1940s.


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