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West Kern Oil Museum, Taft, CA

Photo: Konrad Summers from Santa Clarita (Valencia) , California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Museums

West Kern Oil Museum

Volunteer-run museum in Taft devoted to local oil-field history and the history of the Westside region.

1168 Wood Street, Taft, California 93268 · Taft, CA

About West Kern Oil Museum

Located near Highway 33 and Wood Street, this volunteer-operated museum traces the history of Taft and the petroleum industry. Its grounds recreate an early oil company camp, with shops, a cookhouse, and equipment from a historic oil field. Indoor galleries cover subjects from early Indigenous inhabitants and oil pioneers to trains, gushers, early housing, and pumping equipment. Visitors can also see a fire house, a shotgun house, a transportation building, and a library. The museum is a nonprofit that relies on donations and volunteer docents.

  • #oil-history
  • #local-history
  • #volunteer-run
  • #outdoor-exhibits
  • #petroleum-industry

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