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Robert "Bob" LeeRoy Powers
1924-2002
Block 89, Lot C12
Bob Powers, son of Marvin & Isabel Powers, came into the world in Old Kernville on June 7, 1924. He grew up living and working near the land homesteaded by his great grandparents, Thomas & Sophia Smith, in 1861 on the heels of the Kern River Gold Rush of 1855. As a young man Powers continued ranching and cowboying with a stint in the Navy during WWII.
In 1951, he wooed and wed a Kern Valley girl named Margie Martin and they started raising a family and running the family ranch. In the late 1950's, he joined the U.S. Forest Service and his territory was the same region of the Southern Sierras where he and his father and his father before him had always worked and lived.
As a 5th generation descendent of some of the hardiest pioneers of the Kern River Valley he knew its history needed to be written, or an important part of California history would be forever lost. In the late 1960's his desire to see it done led him to make introductions around the Kern River Valley for a writer who, in exchange for a fee, would write a history of the area and its people.
After the writer disappeared with everyone's money, Bob Powers decided to do it himself because, as he said, "it needed to be done." Bob Powers made no pretensions about being a great writer.
The decision to write one book led this cowboy, cattleman, ranger, historian to write a total of 9 books detailing the work, lives and loves of the pioneers of the Kern River Basin and the Southern California High Desert region east of the Sierras; including the Death and Owens Valleys and Mojave. His written work details the development of these farming, ranching and mining communities from the 1850's onward -- and the people who gave them life. More than just broad stroke descriptions of the Greenhorn Mountain Gold rush, the establishment of the big cattle ranches, Powers was also intent on focusing on the small details of everyday living for the pioneer folk: the cowboys, the ranchers, the merchants and moonshiners; the preachers, the outlaws, the mountain men and sheriffs, that settled Kern and the High Desert. Powers' description of the harnessing of the Kern River for energy production, including the flooding of Old Isabella to create the lake that now lies over it, remains amongst his best work.
Bob Powers was deeply committed to the Kern River Valley Historical Society and Museum, serving as its director-curator and donating much of his lifetime collection of photographs and artifacts to the museum. Without his hard work and dedication much of this important history would have been lost forever.
In June 2006, Cinematographer Charles L. "Chuck" Barbee began production of an 'Old West' history documentary series about California's Southern Sierra Nevada region called "Wild West Country" based the Powers books. (Books and the 1st "Wild West Country" DVD are available at the KRV History Museum gift shop in Kernville.
On Aug. 14, 2008, the United States Board on Geographic Names named a 5,778 foot mountain peak 1.7 mile NNE of Kernville (where the historic Harley mine site is located) as "Powers Peak." This is an exceptional honor for Bob Powers, his family and many friends. His unique legacy warrants such recognition.
The Old Kernville Historic Cemetery Tour was researched and created by Kern River Valley Historical Society members Jenny Hanley, and Richard Rowe as part of the 2010 Kern River Valley Historical Society Annual History Days, celebrating the history of the Kern River Valley.
Photo courtesy of Kern River Valley Historic Society
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