Tehachapi Depot Museum

Tehachapi owes its existence to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which pushed its line over Tehachapi Pass in 1876 — completed in July of that year as the final link connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, and part of what became the second transcontinental railroad. The railroad founded the new town and drew residents away from nearby Tehichipa. After the original station building was destroyed by fire, the depot was rebuilt in 1904, and thanks to its position near the Tehachapi Loop it ranked among the most active rural stations during World War II, later serving as a warehouse and railroad office. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in October 1999, but burned down in June 2008 — at the time it was the oldest building in downtown Tehachapi. It was reconstructed in 2009 using the original plans with only minor code-driven modifications, and the new building was dedicated on June 5, 2010. Today it operates as the Tehachapi Depot Railroad Museum, displaying historic railroad tools, signals, photographs, newspaper articles, lanterns, and dining-car china, much of it from the family of Bill Stokoe, a retired railroad worker who died in 1999.