River Children Stories

What's inside!

River Children is 204 pages with over 75 distinct stories with lots of pictures and illustrations about the River Children and their adventures. The stories are put into chapters from getting to Kernville in the old cars at the time, to the last days in the old town as it was being moved to make way for the Lake Isabella. Other books give a glimpse of how things were back then, but River Children gives first hand perspectives, written by several authors often about the same places and events that give the reader a truly unusual experience how it was to actually be there at the time. It's not just a book about history, but also a social narrative about those that occupied the town. The name of the families that lived in the old town just before it was moved is also provided.

Included as an appendix is an aerial view of the town in 1948, and a specially prepared map of the town from 1945 to 1951, with the places mentioned shown. When the lake is low, you can use this map to walk the old streets and find the foundations where the River Children once played.

As the book was being finalized, Pat McPherson found a file at the Beal Memorial Library in Bakersfield titled “Kernville” that contained “Childhood Recollections of Hazel B. Steinmetz (Hazel Tibbetts)” that was compiled in October 1974. Hazel’s mother, Anna Tibbetts, arrived in Kernville in 1891, and the best we can determine, Hazel was born in 1898, almost 50 years before the stories in the River Children took place. Hazel’s stories have been included as an appendix. What is interesting is that Hazel mentions some of the same people and places described in the events of the River Children. It makes for some interesting reading to get a glimpse of the same places over such a wide time frame by so many different authors. The table of contents is listed below.

Chapter 1 – Getting There

We’re On Our Way to Kernville

Cars Were Not Reliable

Soledad Junction

Halfway - Mojave

Robbers on the Road

Red Rock Canyon and Ricardo’s

The Joshua Tree People

Walker’s Pass

South Fork

Onyx Store

The Cattle Drive

The Tunnel of Trees

It’s a Cattle Guard

Chapter 2 – Downtown

The Town Hill (Hackley Hill)

The Ditch through Town

Grandma and Pop’s House Burns

Barbara’s House

Pop’s Barber Shop

The Two Barbers

The Boxing Event of the Year

Pool/Dance Hall

Our Movie Show

The Malt Shop

James Store

A. Brown Store

The Jail

The Library

Our School

The Church

The Snake in the Plate

Doctor’s Office and Hospital

The Mountain Inn

Boot Hill – The Cemetery

Movie Street

Chapter 3 – On the River

Riverside Drive

Riverside Beach

The Deep Stretch

Meeting the River

Camping Like Gypsies

Crossing the Line

The Wicked Weir

The First Rafting Company

Our River Changes

Chapter 4 – Our Other Adventures

Cut and Wounded

Dreadful Land Minds

The Kids Clubs

Chew For the Taking

Free Donkey Rides

Walking Home Alone

A Young Photographer

The Pied Piper with the Manzanita Cane

A Canine Speed Cop

The Saturday Night Dance

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Drunk on a Hot Afternoon

Her Prize Chickens

An Obsession with the Trout

Roy’s Cat Hunt

My Shirley Temple Haircut

All My Moms

The Porch People

Our Great Grandma Kate

Gate Night

Monday Wash Day

The Evening’s Entertainment

The Telephone

A Trip to the Dump

Willow Branches

Chapter 5 – Side Trips

The Stage to Bakersfield

The Hot Springs

Keysville, A Place of Dreams

The Snow’s On the Greenhorn Mountains

Chapter 6 – Coming to An End

Summer is Over

We Were Dammed

Looking Back Today

Chapter 7 - The Cast of Characters

Appendix A – One of the Earliest River Children

Appendix B – Aerial View of Kernville

Appendix C – 1945-1951 Kernville Map