Kernville, CA

Old Kernville began along the Kern River after the 1858 gold rush tied to the nearby Big Blue Mine. Known at different times as Whiskey Flat, Rogersville, and Williamsburg, the settlement stood at about 2,575 feet in the Sierra Nevada's Kern River Valley. The town was later submerged beneath the Lake Isabella reservoir, and California Historical Landmark No. 132 marks the original townsite.

ATTRBobak Ha'Eri / CC BY-SA 2.5

That history still surfaces when the lake level drops and parts of the former site appear. The old town's location is still legible in the lakebed. The surrounding Kernville area now meets Lake Isabella and the Upper and Lower Kern River, with fishing, boating, hiking, and whitewater activity shaping the visitor economy. The Kern Valley Museum and Whiskey Flats Days keep the older settlement's past in circulation, connecting the reservoir landscape to the mining and river town that came before it. Kernville is understood through two maps: the old river settlement below the lake and the present communities around its shore.