A Tour of Tehachapi

When I tell someone that I am from Tehachapi, I often get a blank stare in return. Tejapah..what? 

Those who have heard of it probably know it because of one of its random claims to fame, like the ostrich farm, the windmills, or the Tehachapi loop . 

Either that, or they just think that they drove by the place once on their way to Vegas... 

While even some locals might wonder why anyone who is not a train or ostrich enthusiast (or who doesn't have a relative to visit at our high security prison) would ever want to visit this windy place, Tehachapi really does have plenty of treasures to discover...

All you have to do is pull off the highway!

A proper tour of Tehachapi and its many treasures begins with an understanding of its unique name.There is a lot of speculation about where the word Tehachapi originates, but a lot of folks around here (and other legitimate sources, of course) will tell you that it comes from the Kawaiisu Native American word Tihachipia, which means "difficult climb." This seems likely, considering it is a pretty difficult climb up to this lovely valley I call home. 

If you were wondering, it's pronounced tuh-hatch-ah-peee. Tehachapi!)

What the Kawaiisu word for Tehachapi probably does not mean is "The Land of Four Seasons." That is, however, the official nickname for the town. I only point this out because I was recently amused to find that an Australian indie rock band called "Tehachapi" based their entire musical concept on the fact that the word means "four seasons" in a native American language. It seems they confused the Kawaiisu meaning of this word, "difficult climb", for the town's contemporary nickname. It turns out that their band just recently broke up, so perhaps the name "difficult climb" was a more appropriate name for their band anyway. It's a rough road to the top. 


 

Anyway, the point of that tangent was really just to say that Tehachapi is known as the Land of Four Seasons. 

While we know this may actually be a euphemism for "it gets both uncomfortably cold and uncomfortably hot here" I think it's a charming and accurate nick-name—and to really know Tehachapi, to really see all of its treasures, you do have to see it in all of its seasons. 

You have to trudge through the snowy downtown sidewalks for breakfast at Kelcy's Cafe on a winter morning; you have to drink watery, too-hot hot chocolate as you cheer on the Warriors at Coy Burnett Stadium on a breath-freezing October night; you have to sweat in the sun as you watch the annual Mountain Festival parade in the summer, and you have to see the fleeting colors of spring wildflowers and rolling green hills, which fade long before the icy cold winds that last well into June.

The movie theater :)

View from above :)