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(2002)
Enlarge Museum.
Peter Lebec killed by a bear. Sign reads:
"In 1889, lettering, in reverse, on the inside of the bark of the Lebec
Oak was discovered by a lady of the Foxtail Rangers. After the bark was
stripped from the tree the entire inscription was found. Lebec Oak
inscription loaned by the Kern County Museum."
Peter Lebec was a French fur trapper in the area about 1837 when he came
across a grizzly bear that attacked and killed him |
|
(2002)
Museum. Sign reads:
"The U.S. Army on the Western Frontier: With the sights and sounds of battle
still fresh in their memories, the U.S. Army's "bluecoats" headed west at
the end of the Mexican War. Between 1845 and 1848, the United States
acquired more than one million square miles by annexation, conquest, and
treaty, almost doubling its territory. The government then assigned the Army
to map this vast domain and to protect American settlers venturing into the
new lands.
Thinly scattered at remote posts from California to Texas and from Oregon to
New Mexico, about 8,000 troops went on frontier duty. From 1854 to 1861,
companies of the famed 1st U.S. Dragoons manned Fort Tejon. Dragoons, part
of the Army since 1833, were like cavalry -- soldiers trained to fight on
horseback." |
