Scenic 395 - The Official Guide 2025

26 2025 Scenic 395 Kernville to kind of relive that vicariously. And so we offer that through the encampment. They get to go down there and go back in time when they’re walking through the encampment. And they see how things were done, how people lived, how they ate, how they drank.” Woodward knows more, on this topic, than any man alive. He described that the encampment consists of a Cavalry Camp, a Native American “Indian” Camp, a Mountain Man Camp, Whis- key Flat Town Camp, the Mining and Black Smithing Area, and the WildWest Show of Buffalo Bill. Woodward invites the public to join with reenactors for an old fashioned Cowboy Church service, Sunday morning, at 10am. Famous independent filmmaker Chuck Barbee is the Whiskey Flat Encampment historical accuracy advisor. Barbee previously made the filmWildWest Country, a documentary film about the old west history of California’s Southern Sierras and the Kern River Valley. Woodward said, “Chuck Barbee, he’s an important piece of what we do. And he’s important to lend a genuine au- thenticity factor to the information that we put out around the campfire as reenactors, talking first person history of the 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, and what was going on here.” Woodward said that his team got a lot of their material out of the Bob Powers book series andWalker who was a historical figure descendant of early settlers from the 1850s. According to Woodward the books are available, at the Kern Valley Museum, in Kernville. “We’ve had 4,000 people through our encampment, in the past, and it works just fine. And we all communicate and coor- dinate. How do we do it? We use a process that was used in the military back from the Civil War, the General Sherman days, and General Lee days,”Woodward said. “If they could communicate back then, without cell phones, we can too, today because we know how to do it. We have our runners, our younger kids that go back n forth. And if we need something done immediately, we get one of the younger reenactors or one of the teenagers that’s learning how to be a reenactor, to run a message from one end of the encampment to the other. “It’s been quite fun all of the different varieties of reenactors that we attract. And we attract them from all over the United States. I’ve got one reenactor group, that comes from Texas to be with us, because its one of the most unique reenactment opportunities, for reenactors that exists out there.” What reenactors do is relive the history of a particular era of history and persona. Woodward believes there is a distinct difference between actors and reenactors. “You live the history. You learn about it. You learn your part, who is this guy I am? And then we go out and reenact it,” he said. The reenactors choreograph their stories and gunfights. They have historically accurate costuming. And they learn the part and practice it, over and over, until it is just right. The team puts in many hours preparing for the reenectment. “All of us meet on a regular basis. We have scripts for the various skits that we’re going to put on, as per History Encampment Advisor Chuck Bar- bee the expert, and documented history,” saidWoodward. Ananian said, “You go to Hollywood, people want to see the Walk of Fame. The encampment is the Walk of Fame - here. People come to Kernville; they want to see the Walk of Fame duringWhiskey Flat Days. It’s the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building. That’s what the Whiskey Flat Encampment is to us.” Please see the Kernville Chamber page for the Whiskey Flat Days events schedule. https://www.officialwhiskeyflatdays. com/. Kern River Continued from Page 25 A scene from a past Whiskey Flat Days. Courtesy of Whiskey Flat Encampment founder, producer Mike Woodward