City of Taft Official logo of City of Taft Location in Kern County and the state of California Location in Kern County and the state of California City of Taft is positioned in the US City of Taft - City of Taft Taft (formerly Moron, Moro, and Siding Number Two) is a town/city in the foothills at the extreme southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California.
Taft is positioned 30 miles (48 km) west-southwest of Bakersfield, at an altitude of 955 feet (291 m). The populace was 9,327 at the 2010 census.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 15.1 square miles (39.1 km2).
2 Taft and petroleum 9 Movies filmed in Taft The town began as Siding Number Two on the Sunset Railroad. According to a display at the West Kern Oil Museum, small-town inhabitants asked the Southern Pacific Railroad if the station could be titled Moro when the rails appeared in about 1900, but a barns official declined because the name would be too easily confused with the coastal town of Morro Bay.
After a fire burned much of the town, the name was changed to Taft with respect to William Howard Taft. Taft and petroleum This petroleum well produced into the 1980s, and the operator then donated the old derrick and 3 acres of territory to found the West Kern Oil Museum.
Taft is situated in a primary oil and natural gas manufacturing region in California and is one of the several remaining suburbs in the United States which exist exclusively because of close-by petroleum reserves.
The discernment of petroleum in the region occurred in the late 19th century near Maricopa, seven miles (11 km) south of Taft.
Many other petroleum and gas accumulations were identified around Taft amid the early-to-mid-20th century, prominently the Midway field (near Fellows, California), Sunset field (later found to be part of the same trend, accounting for the undivided combined name of Midway-Sunset), and the Buena Vista.
The working activities inside these fields, as well as Occidental Petroleum's Elk Hills Oil Field north of Taft, have been the economic life blood of the town for over 100 years.
Enhanced petroleum recovery operations in the form of steam manufacturing and injection have been used on the thick viscous crude petroleum of the Midway-Sunset field since the mid-to-late-1960s.
Standard Oil, later the Standard Oil Company of California (modern Chevron), made Taft its corporate working headquarters.
At one time it is reported that as many as 6,000 inhabitants of Taft were working by Standard Oil.
Within the camp was everything imaginable to run a large petroleum and gas company: a rail spur from the line running through Taft, steel and timber for derrick assembly and maintenance, pipe, valves, various offices, an expansive and highly specialized machine shop, a plethora of supply shops, the car and truck fleet, bunkhouses for workers, and dozens of business homes for employees.
In 1968 Standard Oil of California moved its accounting and finance offices to Concord, California.
Many other petroleum companies had operations in the area, including larger companies such as Shell, Texaco, Exxon, Mobil, Gulf, and Arco, as well as lesser operations (but with a large small-town presence) such as Santa Fe Energy, Berry Petroleum, Tannehill, M.H.
In the mid-1990s, as stated to California's Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), there were 68 operating companies working the Midway-Sunset field alone.
In celebration of its petroleum heritage, Taft holds its "Oildorado" festival every five years.
Taft was also the site of a military airfield, Gardner Field, which was used to train pilots amid World War II.
Today, the barns , originally assembled to export crude petroleum and import drinking water, is gone but the region still has a momentous petroleum trade presence.
The West Kern Oil Museum, at 1168 Wood Street, has vast holdings including pumps, fire apparatus, trucks, a historic wooden derrick, photos, models, and extensive displays of small-town history back to Indian times.
The town's second weekly newspaper, the Taft Independent, began printed announcement on July 4, 2006.
The city, which has experienced the ups and downs of the boom and bust cycle of the petroleum industry, has recently experienced new evolution and company expansion with the opening of a 3 story, 70 room Taft Inn Best Western Plus Hotel, the opening of a craft brewery, Black Gold Brewing Company, in the historic downtown on Center Street, the reopening of the historic Taft Fox Theater, the opening of The Bank, a bar and grill in the historic Taft State Bank Building, a new Taco Bell restaurant and many more "mom and pop" small businesses.
Tall world-class all bronze sculpture that features a several human figures displayed on an petroleum derrick by artist Benjamin Victor that was paid for with donations from small-town residents, visitors and a several petroleum companies.
A shooting occurred at Taft Union High School on January 10, 2013.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' Vin Scully the "man with the golden voice" was in Taft, California on May 9, 2015 to memorialize a small-town baseball and wiffle ball field that bears his name.
Taft too made a big impression on Scully.
Majority Leader Mc - Carthy had this to say about the Dodger's legend and his visit to Taft: "For Vin Scully to be here to dedicate it is pretty exciting, because here we've grown up listening to that voice call all those meaningful games.
Taft has a desert climate (Koppen BWh), with long, hot, dry summers, and brief, cool, moist winters.
Taft averages 112.7 days with highs above 90 F (32 C) and 6.2 days with lows below 32 F (0 C).
The highest recorded temperature in Taft is 112 F (44.4 C) on July 11, 2008.
The lowest recorded temperature in Taft is 24 F (-4.4 C) on December 23, 1998. Climate data for Taft, California (1994 2012 normals) Average rain days ( 0.01 in) 8 7 5 4 2 0 0 0 1 2 4 6 39 Source: TAFT, CALIFORNIA: Period of Record General Climate Summary The Fox Theatre, downtown Taft.
The 2010 United States Enumeration reported that Taft had a populace of 9,327.
The ethnic makeup of Taft was 7,388 (79.2%) White, 396 (4.2%) African American, 118 (1.3%) Native American, 93 (1.0%) Asian, 65 (0.7%) Pacific Islander, 1,023 (11.0%) from other competitions, and 244 (2.6%) from two or more competitions.
The Enumeration reported that 6,372 citizens (68.3% of the population) lived in homeholds, 123 (1.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 2,832 (30.4%) were institutionalized.
There were 2,254 homeholds, out of which 914 (40.6%) had kids under the age of 18 living in them, 1,119 (49.6%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 289 (12.8%) had a female homeholder with no husband present, 178 (7.9%) had a male homeholder with no wife present.
The populace was spread out with 1,844 citizens (19.8%) under the age of 18, 1,041 citizens (11.2%) aged 18 to 24, 3,521 citizens (37.8%) aged 25 to 44, 2,136 citizens (22.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 785 citizens (8.4%) who were 65 years of age or older.
3,847 citizens (41.2% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 2,525 citizens (27.1%) lived in rental housing units.
Taft City Hall There were 2,233 homeholds out of which 33.6% had kids under the age of 18 living with them, 53.9% were married couples living together, 10.7% had a female homeholder with no husband present, and 29.9% were non-families.
In the city, the populace was spread out with 25.6% under the age of 18, 12.1% from 18 to 24, 27.9% from 25 to 44, 21.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.8% who were 65 years of age or older.
Taft Union High School Taft Primary School Taft Union High School Taft College, Community College Welcome to Taft sign.
In October 2010 Taft had its 100-year birthday.
Every 5 years amid October, Taft holds a birthday celebration.
This event began as a parade and civic luncheon, commemorating Taft's 20th birthday in November 1930.
After the war, in 1946, the celebrations began again and the Taft District Chamber of Commerce made them permanent.
Oildorado is an ongoing testimony for Taft as a certified "Oil Town" -its origins owing solely to petroleum manufacturing and exploration, a rare distinct ion among any town in the world.
Jordan Belfort, businessman and convicted felon, "Wolf of Wall Street"; not originally from Taft, spent time at Taft Correctional Institution The Best of Times, a movie about Taft "California Cities by Incorporation Date" (Word).
Taft, CA.
California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State.
Taft High School shooting update: Reports indicate at least 1 person shot in California high school Retrieved January 10, 2013 a b "Taft General Climate Summary - WRCC".
"2010 Enumeration Interactive Population Search: CA - Taft city".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taft, California.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Taft.
Taft District Chamber of Commerce Taft College "Taft Union High School" "Taft City Schools" The "Taft Independent" journal Municipalities and communities of Kern County, California, United States
Categories:
1910 establishments in California - Cities in Kern County, California - Incorporated metros/cities and suburbs in California - Populated places established in 1910
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