Canebrake is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is located along

California State Route 178 State Route 178 (SR 178) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that exists in two constructed segments. The gap in between segments is connected by various local roads and State Route 190 through Death Valley National Park. The w ...

in the South Fork Valley, east-northeast of

Onyx Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The ...

at an elevation of . Canebrake Creek, which State Route 178 follows down to Canebrake from the

Walker Pass Walker Pass (el. ) is a mountain pass by Lake Isabella in the southern Sierra Nevada. It is located in northeastern Kern County, approximately 53 mi (85 km) ENE of Bakersfield and 10 mi (16 km) WNW of Ridgecrest. The pass pr ...

, was named by

Robert S. Williamson Robert Stockton Williamson (January 21, 1825 – November 10, 1882) was an American soldier and engineer, noted for conducting surveys for the transcontinental railroad in California and Oregon. Inducted into the Army Corps of Engineers in 186 ...

in the fall of 1853 after he observed Indians there collecting the sugary reeds from a canebrake, or bulrush patch. The creek is a major tributary of the

South Fork Kern River The South Fork Kern River is a tributary of the Kern River in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. It is one of the southernmost rivers on the western slope of the mountains, and drains a high, relatively dry plateau country of al ...

, which it flows into at Bloomfield Ranch, part of the Canebrake Ecological Reserve. The original town site was located about three miles further east on Isabella-Walker Pass Road. The area was the site of a speakeasy and alcohol still during prohibition, run by a local bootlegger named Victor Hugo. The Chimney Peak Back Country Byway splits off from Route 178 in Canebrake, leading to the Chimney Peak Wilderness and connecting to some of the most rugged and remote areas of the Southern Sierra Nevada.

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Unincorporated communities in Kern County, California Unincorporated communities in California {{KernCountyCA-geo-stub