Lost Hills, CA

Lost Hills is an unincorporated Kern County census-designated place about 42 miles west-northwest of Bakersfield, on the east bank of the California Aqueduct. The 2020 census counted 2,370 residents. The town took its name from the low hills to the west and northwest, where the Lost Hills Oil Field began with a well drilled in 1910. Its post office opened in 1911, closed and reopened, then moved again in 1937—an early sign of a community built around changing work and travel patterns. Today, oil, water, and highways share the same stark San Joaquin Valley map.

ATTRBusition / CC BY 4.0

The aqueduct runs along town's east side, the oil field spreads toward the hills, and Interstate 5 passes nearby without touching the community. Lost Hills was also the first place monitored under California's neighborhood-air study near petroleum operations, which gives the town a very present-day relationship with the industry beside it. Lost Hills's local scoop is a California oil-and-water community whose name comes from a low range, whose post office moved through a cafe, and whose main landmarks are pumps, aqueduct concrete, and open valley.