The Tehachapi Depot is located in the center of Downtown Tehachapi. The building is a replica and houses the Tehachapi Depot Railroad Museum, loving operated by volunteers and open every day except Tuesday and Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The town of Tehachapi has shared its history with the old Southern Pacific Railroad, since the construction of the railroad line through the region connected Los Angeles and the Bay Area in 1876.
Observers from around the world come to Tehachapi specifically to witness the most heavily trafficked single track main line in the country and the engineering marvel that is the Tehachapi Loop.
The French term, terroir comes from the word terre "land" and is often used to denote the special characteristics of place - including climate, geology and geography - to food that is produced there.
From farm to fork, Tehachapi's growing food scene is being promoted by the Taste of Tehachapi through its web site, festivals and culinary events. Since its inception in 2007 Taste of Tehachapi has been helping define Tehachapi as a destination fit for foodies.
The Tehachapi Food and Wine Festival held each year on the first Saturday in August, has become a landmark regional event for food and wine lovers from all over Southern California. The festival features not only the finest independent restaurants and wineries, but also includes local farms highlighting our bounty of locally raised foods. The festival also showcases local and celebrity chefs with live cooking demonstrations as well as the very finest in the arts community, music and theater.
The Tehachapi Farmer's Market, a production of Main Street Tehachapi, takes place on Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m., June to August each year. Vendors fill downtown's Centennial Plaza and adjacent Green Street with their organic produce, arts and crafts, refreshing beverages and delicious food. Live music is also provided for visitors' entertainment.
Tehachapi's world-famous apple orchards share a long history of harvesting a wide variety of the best tree-ripened apples in the country. Each fall brings this crisp and juicy change of seasons that lasts from late August through November, depending on the first frost.
Many visitors to the area will be pleasantly surprised to discover that "Tuscany in Tehachapi" has taken firm root in the Cummings Valley.
There are 270 state parks in the California State Park system, and one of the most protected and exclusive is located here in Tehachapi. Known as Tomo Kahni State Historic Park, it was established in December of 1993 to preserve ancient village and ceremonial sites of the Nuwa (Kawaiisu) Indian people of the Tehachapi region.
Located about 10 miles west of Tehachapi along Highway 58 at Keene is La Paz, a former tuberculosis sanatorium (Stony Brook Retreat, operated by Kern County from 1918-1968), which became the California headquarters of the United Farm Workers union in 1971.