Marijuana: The real cash crop of Kern County?
by Samuel Heath
July 21, 2007

People have every right to envy those of us able to live here in the Kern River Valley. Clean air and water, no pollution or heavy traffic, all the amenities close at hand. Surrounded by beautiful mountains, the Kern River flowing from up north into Isabella Lake where the fishing is terrific, and beautiful, pristine trout streams like Bull Run Creek nearby. Adding to the attraction is the lack of graffiti and no gang warfare over drug turf.

But recalling the area before the lake went in when the Kern River flowed unrestricted through the valley, when Isabella had a population of about 35 and Kernville 115, when the whole of the Sequoia National Forest was my personal area to explore, hunt, and fish hardly ever seeing another person was living a life as a boy that now seems a fairy tale. At that, despite the small population at the time there were enough characters out of Peyton Place and those like the “mad scientistâ€