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Overview

In the lower Sierra Nevada Mountains near Bakersfield, California, there was an 1800-era gold mining area known as the Kern River Valley. Near the Valley’s Big Blue Mine, a small settlement called Whiskey Flat was established to sell liquor to the miners. As more families came to the valley, that town on the banks of the Kern River became known as Kernville. Soon, the rough and tumble Whiskey Flat was gone and Kernville became the hub of activity. This valley and the surrounding area has been well documented from a historical point of view by Bob Powers’ books about the Indians who lived there, the North and South Forks of the Kern River, the miners, the ranchers, and the loggers who pioneered the area.

This book is about a new breed of settlers to the Kern River Valley—Ruth and Jack Hinkey and generations to follow. Ruth and Jack came to Kernville from Chatsworth, California, with their seven-year-old son, Dennis, after the end of World War II. Jack (Pop) had discovered the area on a fishing trip and wanted to bring his family there to get away from the growth in the San Fernando Valley. This was a time when the sacrifices of the war were put behind—a time of great celebration, the restarting of lives that had been put on hold, a time of freedom and adventure.

The children and grandchildren of Ruth and Jack, and the other children, who lived in Kernville, sensed this excitement and freedom. On their own, they went to the Kern River, found such adventure that the memories never left them, and the River became part of their soul. All remember something special and different about the same adventure. They created an almost magical society based on nature, the ways of the river, camaraderie and history. The children were in perfect harmony with the community, as if the town and river were props in their world of magic and adventure.

Sixty years after these events took place, the two youngest grandchildren at the time, Barbara Hinkey and Pat McPherson, discovered they were both writing stories about their magical times as youngsters on the Kern River. Barbara had named her stories “Children of the River,” and Pat had named his tales “River Children.” Both were only five years old when these stories first occurred, and were age ten when Kernville ”disappeared” and was moved up river about four miles to make way for the Lake Isabella reservoir.

This book is a compilation of Barbara and Pat’s stories with a description of the town and the people who lived there at the time. Their stories give insight about innocence, danger, fear, parents, growing up, and why they became the River Children. It also contains memories and stories shared by their young Uncle Dennis; Fred McPherson, Ann Clements and some stories shared by Hazel Steinmetz (Tibbetts) who was one of the early River Children born in 1898.