If you’ve spent any time in Kern County, you’ve probably heard the county’s nickname: the Golden Empire. It’s on the local transit agency, the call letters of TV station KGET, and dozens of local community organizations, non-profits and businesses. But how did Kern County get to be known as The Golden Empire? That story, today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
Kern County got its start with the Kern River Gold Rush back in 1851. About 50 years later, it was a different kind of rush, black gold, that transformed the county’s economy. Meanwhile agriculture grew in size and significance, and Kern become one of the top counties in the state and nation in farm production. So calling Kern the Golden Empire makes sense, at least in the context of chamber of commerce-type civic boosterism.
So when did Kern County earn this imperial distinction? The nickname picked up usage in the 60s and 70s, but it dates all the way back to at least 1940, when the Kern County Board of Trade published a pamphlet with the title “The Golden Empire of Kern County.” A later version of the document from the 1950s extolls the county’s virtues: “As large as Massachusetts. More population and wealth than Nevada. Larger than the combined states of Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut... A billion dollars in sunshine.” You get the picture.
Ironically, one year before Kern County leaders began promoting the moniker, their colleagues up north did the same. In 1939, Sacramento and 15 other northern California counties celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of Sutter’s Fort, calling the celebration California’s Golden Empire Centennial. Today that celebration is long forgotten, but Kern County’s nickname as the Golden Empire lives on.
