Thank you so much for sharing your childhood adventures in Original

Kernville!  I'm 37 years old... when I was a kid, my grandparents lived in

the Rivernook Campground just above New Kernville.  Back in 1999, I

purchased a place in the hills of Wofford Heights and have had many

adventures here in and around the valley with family and friends.

I discovered Bob Powers' books early on and got to know "Old Kernville"

through his words and the pictures in "North Fork Country", my favorite in

his series.  I got to meet and chat with him several times but I'll save

those for another day!

While things are different in the valley today, there is still a magic here.

Faded a bit, yes, but still here.  I felt it when I first read "North Fork

Country".  My first couple of years up here coincided with some really dry

years and the lake was extremely low, so we explored, using the map in the

book.  I must tell you that I have so many questions I would like to ask you

about Original Kernville but I don't want to overwhelm you in a single

email!  I really felt the magic when I read Bob's book... but it really hit

home when I walked the dusty streets of Old Kernville referencing that map.

Identifying the foundations, seeing old pictures, studying the lay of the

land.  That the basic run of the streets were still intact was amazing to

me.  I really wished I could go back in time and see it for myself.  I have

visited "Boot Hill" many, many times... I have put faces to the names on the

tombstones -- then roughly placed where they lived in Old Kernville via that

map.  Then looked about at the mountains trying to picture what they say

each morning they began their day.

In a way, your book has done that for me.  I haven't forgotten what it was

like being a kid... now I can pair that with your childhood experiences in

Kernville.  I can feel it... and I can actually imagine how it was growing

up there.  And that I have walked those streets some 60 years after you both

did... well, that's the magic of it all! Some of the landmarks you mention

that still exist... I have seen them and touched them.  I have stood upon

the red schoolhouse steps more times than I can count.  So, this is why I

have so many questions for you!

I have taken many pictures of the townsite, which again this year is under

water.  When the lake drops, I plan to this time take your map and use it as

a guide, as it offers information not shown on the map in Bob's book.  One

question I have is of the weir so often mentioned in your book.  Is it the

one with the two big gates?  I have walked across what remains of this... I

have taken some great pictures of it -- if it is the same landmark.  The

gates are still there... forever open.  In fact, several years ago, that

whole stretch from this weir to the Borel Canal intake had received some

work (new fencing around the intake, etc.)... the sand was hardened and

leveled and the weir cleaned up.  The deep pool just shy of the canal intake

was restored and it looked to me as if they had intended to activate the

canal.  Of course, a huge storm wiped all this out and destroyed everything

some months after they began all of this.  There was actually heavy

equipment down by the canal near Tilly Creek doing repair work shortly

before the storm ended it all!  Anyway, our adventuring also took us to

ANOTHER weir -- a very long one across the path of the river, where it

forked away east from the deep pool in front of the canal intake.  We

actually walked across the length of this particular weir and I now wonder

if THAT was the weir mentioned in your book?

I didn't want to send any photos as I wasn't sure if that was okay... But

I'm rambling and this email is much longer than I intended it to be.  "River

Children" has been a wonderful read and I have really enjoyed it.  It has

brought back some magic for me, much like that I experienced when I first

discovered the history of Old Kernville.  I have really enjoyed

"cross-referencing" and putting the names of your childhood friends to the

faces in the school photos of "North Fork Country".

Thanks again for publishing this book.  I didn't want it to end!  I wanted

to read more!

Best wishes,

Brian D. Puckett

Book imparts feeling of Old Kernville

The thing you notice most about “River Children” is that it brings you a very deep flavor of what Old Kernville was all about. “Flavor, that’s a good word,” said Pat McPherson. Much effort is spent on description of what Old Kernville was like, from Riverside Park (they kept the name when they moved the town) to places like The Island and the Deep Stretch on the river to Hackley Hill, Bert’s Store and Don’s Cafe in the town itself.

All this is seen through the eyes of children. Many anecdotes deal with things that only children would notice, like the cattle guards that had snakes, spiders and monsters living beneath them. But also we get to hear stories about the town barbershops, the pool hall, the Saturday night dances, and the movies shown outdoors on warm summer nights.

Those of us who never got to experience Old Kernville can get an idea of what it was like to go into the old A. Brown Store. Barbara Hinkey writes, “The old store had everything anyone could ever want. There were big jars of candy up on the counter. A nickel would get you a whole bag full of goodies and a quarter would buy an airplane, a squirt gun, jacks or a kite. The floors were wooden and creaked when you walked. Many times, we would do our best to sneak in with our skates on, as the floors were perfect for all kinds of tricks. But it was darned hard not to make any noise and as soon as the lady behind the counter figured out what we were doing, out we would go. It is where Dad used to buy his work clothes and there were plenty of tools. The front windows had big poster-like things hanging in them, advertising what was playing at the theater.” Pat McPherson has different memories of the old store. He didn’t like going in there. McPherson writes that they used to follow him around the store and it made him uncomfortable. It is this mixture of reminiscences that makes this book different from the normal single-author narrative.

Stories are told about many of the places in town, such as the old jail and Movie Street, but the most descriptive parts concern the people (such as the old man who always had a pocketful of nickels for the kids) and the natural wonders of the area.

The cottonwoods and willows shaded the many ponds where pollywogs and river spiders grew and the dragonflies flew. Each day would be a brand new adventure of exploration and discovery in the natural world that surrounded them (both good and bad-- like sticker thorns). The kids played barefoot and by the end of the summer, the bottoms of their feet would be like shoe leather and they wouldn’t feel the thorns at all.

Since most of the families camped along the river (“we couldn’t all stay with our grandparents in town,” said Pat) a lot of the stories are about how the campsites were set up. Ice was scarce, so food was kept as cold as possible by putting it in the river. The campsites were carefully put together and just as carefully taken apart, leaving no trace there was ever anyone camping there.

The book is a narrative, but it is also a lament for the place that disappeared forever when the lake went in, Old Kernville. “That town was magic,” said Pat McPherson. The book talks about the town’s buildings being moved and it mentions that New Kernville is just not quite the same. Pat McPherson said that in his work he regularly goes to China, and he sees the same thing happening there that he witnessed with the destruction of Old Kernville, with “progress” comes disappearing heritage. “But there, they lose hundreds of years of tradition when things change.”

“River Children” brings back a time and place in the crystal clarity of a child’s vision. Our memories from when we are children last our entire lives, whereas today we might forget where we were last week ‹ or yesterday. Since memories from childhood are so clear, reading this book can bring the flavor of a long-gone town to the reader who never had the opportunity to go there.

For more information, Barbara and Pat have a Web site set up for their book,www.riverchildren.net. Ordering information is on the site.

Jan 23, 2007 News Article – Kern Valley Sun, Written by Mike Devich

Have you ever wondered what Old Kernville was like before the lake came in?

Now there's a book written by two cousins, Barbara Hinkey and Pat McPherson, who spent five memorable summers in and around Old Kernville when they were kids. The indelible memories they have of that time just before the town was moved are the subject of “River Children: Adventures in the Town That Disappeared.”

Ruth and Jack Hinkey, who were grandparents to both Barbara and Pat, moved to Old Kernville in 1945 with their youngest son, Dennis. Barbara and Pat had a raft of aunts, uncles and cousins, and it became the thing to do in their extended family to bring the various kids to Kernville camping for the entire summer, where they would be cared for by various relatives while some of the dads and moms and uncles and aunts would shuttle back and forth to the San Fernando Valley. Barbara and her parents lived in Canoga Park, while Pat and his parents lived in Reseda.

The book is a compilation of anecdotes about the last years of Old Kernville by Barbara and Pat as well as some by their Uncle Dennis Hinkey, their cousin Ann Clements and Pat's brother Fred McPherson.

Pat said, “I read all the Bob Powers books and I kept looking for something that reminded me of my experiences as a kid in Old Kernville. I couldn't find any, so I started writing some.” McPherson lives in Ojai today.

Unbeknownst to him, his cousin Barbara was doing the same thing at the same time at her home in Graham, Wash.

They both discovered they were writing about the same thing when they got together at Christmas 2005. “Oh my gosh, we're writing about the same places!” said Pat. By Whiskey Flat Days 2006 they were heavily into making plans for putting a book out.

It came together very quickly. “We just really hustled,” said Barbara. They went and interviewed their Uncle Dennis (who is the “Uncle Dink” in the book) in Squirrel Valley. Their cousin Ann Clements lives in Bakersfield today, and they got her anecdotes. A trip to the Beale Library in Bakersfield yielded some maps, photos and a historical memoir about early 20th century Kernville, written by Hazel Steinmetz (which is included at the back of the book). Images came from Mike and Linda Thomas and Linda's family, the Lamberts, as well as Chuck Barbee. And Pat and Barbara each had photos of their own. And they put together a map of Old Kernville as they remember it. “I think we have the most accurate map there is (of old Kernville), said Pat.

When it came to choosing a publisher, they went with an affiliate of Amazon, and the book is available at amazon.com and also locally at the museum in Kernville and Pringle's Art Gallery. They will also be signing their book at Whiskey Flat Days this year.

A fascinating thing about the book is that after you read one anecdote about a particular topic, then you read another one about the same subject by another author, and sometimes they differ when seen through someone else's eyes.

“We tried not to read each other's stories” while putting the book together, said Barbara. “For instance, Pat remembered that Al Coe the movie projectionist in Old Kernville was also the town undertaker. I had forgotten that.”

She added, “It was a thrill to share each other's stories. Our personalities really came out in our stories.”

Barbara lived in the Kern Valley until 1986, when she moved to Washington. While here she worked for two years at the Kern Valley Sun, where she was assistant editor. “I loved it,” she said. She is a cousin by marriage to longtime Sun ad salesperson (now ad department manager) Michele Lynn.

Barbara will be contributing many stories to the Kern Valley Sun's Whiskey Flat Miner this year. The Sun has been putting out the annual Miner publication for Whiskey Flat Days since 1963.

Barbara said the book experience with Pat has been rewarding in more ways than one. It has brought family members back together who have grown apart in their busy lives. “Pat and I were kids together. But we did kind of fall away from each other. What a joy it is to have Pat back in my life.”

January 2007 - Kern Valley Historical Society newsletter. Written by Rod Middleworth

Just a few minutes ago, I reluctantly finished reading this fascinating book.  Every once in a while you find a book, so interesting, so different, so inviting, that you don't want it to end.  This is such a book.  For any of you who live in Kernville, or have been there, or who wonder what it must have been like in the early years, this will be a book for you to read.  Transported back 65 years you will see lots of the old and a bit of new Kernville through the eyes of 2 children and some of their friends.  Even if you are a history buff and have studied and read about the old town, when you finish this book you will have a new appreciation of what it must have been like to live in those fun filled days.  Many of the stories are told twice, from different perspectives, once as seen perhaps by Barbara and then again as seen by Pat.  As you read chapter after chapter, I am certain that you will wish you could have been there in those happy childhood years.  Playing in the river, hiking and picnicking and going to places like the Mountain Inn, and meeting Roy Rogers.  What a thrill and so much fun.  Throughout the book are short stories told by some of the other children who lived and played with Pat and Barbara.  One short chapter tells of the time when the children rolled a large truck tire down the hill and destroyed a finicky ladies chicken coop.  You will laugh, you will enjoy, and you will wish you could have been there.  I feel strongly that this should be a book that is a must for anybody's library.  First as primer on nostalgia, and secondly as a pleasant reminder that history can be fun.  For the ridiculously cheap price of only $17.00 you can have this for your own...........

December 11, 2006 - Linda Clark, Granddaughter of one of the store owners in Kernville

I just finished your WONDERFUL book, it was delightful!  For a very long time I have been fascinated with old Kernville, any information about the small town is of interest to me. The stories were filled with so much detail, describing the smells, sounds and feel of the town were the best. My mom's grandparents lived on a ranch in the South Fork in the early 40's, her parents would travel here to see them from South Gate.  Your details of the trip to the valley were so much fun and I am sure their adventures were similar.  I enjoyed the stories about my grandparents and my dad, I am sorry not to be able to share them with my dad.  I do have a much better feel and understanding of  the small town and I appreciate all your efforts.  Please thank Barbara for me and your other family  members who contributed.