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When their towns and farms of the Midwest were literally blown away by the dust storms of the 1930s, the Dust Bowl refugees’ only hope of starting new lives was to head west toward California. The Great Depression was in full force and one-third of the United States workforce was without a job.

Bakersfield was just as jobless as any other city. But the San Joaquin Valley attracted the refugees because crop harvest work was available most of the year.

Unfortunately, there were far more workers than available jobs. Forty-five thousand Kern County families were on federal relief programs, and many lived in roadside camps. The largest camp, dubbed “Hooverville,” was east of Chester Avenue between 34th Street and the Kern River. The other large camp, near Brundage Lane and Cottonwood Road, was called “Little Oklahoma.”

This era was a tragedy for everyone and the people of Bakersfield opened their hearts and wallets to donate food, clothing, jobs and shelter. The housing problem became so critical, the Federal government began building "sanitary camps" for displaced families, providing temporary shelter until they could find jobs.

The first government camp was constructed near Arvin in 1935. It was called the Sunset Labor Camp and was the model for John Steinbeck’s Weedpatch Camp in his novel "The Grapes Of Wrath."

The immigrants and their descendants now form a large portion of the population of Kern County as business owners, school teachers, civic leaders and hard-working citizens.

The musical influence they brought with them from Texas, Oklahoma and the other states eventually made Bakersfield the "Nashville West" of county western music. They have all contributed greatly to the heritage of Bakersfield.