Tehachapi, California

Tehachapi (/təˈhætʃəpi/ ^ⓘ; Kawaiisu: Tihachipia, meaning "hard climb") is a city in Kern County, California, United States, in the Tehachapi Mountains, at an elevation of 3,970 feet (1,210 m), between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. Tehachapi is 35 miles (56 km) east-southeast of Bakersfield, and 20 miles (32 km) west of Mojave. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10 square miles (26 km²). As of the 2020 census, Tehachapi had a population of 12,939. The Tehachapi area is known for the nearby Tehachapi Loop (a popular railfan site), the Pacific Crest Trail and for the favorable weather conditions for the aerial sport of gliding.

The Kawaiisu people (also Nuwu ("people" in Kawaiisu), or Nuooah) are the Native American tribe whose homeland was the Tehachapi Valley, and seasonally the southern Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert, for thousands of years.

One possibility for the origin of the name Tehachapi comes from the Kawaiisu language. It may be derived from the word for "hard climb" or tihachipia, according to the Tomi-Kahni Resource Center. The settlement has been formerly known and spelled as: Tehachapai; Tehachapa; Tehachepi; Tehachipi; and Summit Station. According to Yokuts informant Wahumchah, recorded by anthropologist Frank Forrest Latta, Tehachapi derives from a Yokuts-Ute amalgam, from Yokuts taheech[e] "oak-covered flat" + Ute pah' "water" (cl. Pah-ute, lit. 'Water Ute'). On an 1864 map of California, the name appears as Taheechepah.

The original settlement in the Tehachapi Valley, once called Williamsburg or 'Tehichipa', was founded in the 1860s. Now known as ‘Old Town’, it was located four miles west of present-day downtown Tehachapi and was an important station on the road linking the San Joaquin Valley with Southern California. It is now registered as California Historical Landmark #643 for being the oldest settlement in the Tehachapi Valley.

In 1869, Peter D. Greene, a gold prospector and rancher who originally arrived in 1856, was appointed postmaster of a new post office near the Tomlinson Stage Company station at Oak Creek to be called ‘Tehichipa’, which was the only post office in the area. In 1875, Greene founded the community of Greenwich three miles east of Williamsburg and was appointed postmaster there.

Under the leadership of civil engineer J.B. Harris, the Southern Pacific Railroad line through the Tehachapi Pass was completed in July 1876 and became the final link connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. A telegraph office near the railroad tracks located one mile east of Greenwich was the first structure on the empty plain and would become the site of the Tehachapi Railroad Depot and the beginning of the downtown core. The depot is now on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)—and was the oldest building in downtown Tehachapi until it burned in June 2008. It has since been rebuilt using the original plans with only minor modifications to meet modern building codes. The new depot was dedicated on June 5, 2010.

The new railroad town was given the name of Tehachapi Summit, and Williamsburg and Greenwich, having been bypassed by the railroad, saw their population decline as many of the area's residents moved to the new town. In 1885, Greene moved the post office to Tehachapi Summit, the postal name was later changed to ‘Tehachapi’ in 1893. The town was incorporated on August 13, 1909.

Tehachapi experienced the 7.3 magnitude 1952 Kern County earthquake on the White Wolf Fault. At the time, the earthquake was the largest in Southern California in the twentieth century and the largest since the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake. It was felt as far away as Reno, Nevada. Twelve people died in the quake and severe damage was done to buildings and rail lines in the area.