Canebrake is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Kern County Kern County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield. Kern County compris ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. 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 (California), State Route 190 through Death ...

in the South Fork Valley, east-northeast of

Onyx Onyx is a typically black-and-white banded variety of agate, a silicate mineral. The bands can also be monochromatic with alternating light and dark bands. ''Sardonyx'' is a variety with red to brown bands alternated with black or white bands. ...

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 pro ...

, was named by Robert S. Williamson 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 (U.S.), 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 p ...

, which it flows into at Bloomfield Ranch, part of the

Canebrake Ecological Reserve Canebrake Ecological Reserve is a nature reserve in the South Fork Valley of Kern County, east of Lake Isabella, California. It is located in the Southern Sierra Nevada region. Historian Wallace M. Morgan, in ''History of Kern County, Cali ...

. 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 The Chimney Peak Wilderness is a wilderness area located northwest of Ridgecrest, California, Ridgecrest, in southeastern Tulare County, California. The 1994 California Desert Protection Act (Act of Congress, Public Law 103–433) created th ...

and connecting to some of the most rugged and remote areas of the Southern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

References

External links

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