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The Kern Valley Museum closed because of COVID-19 in March, but that does not mean all activities came to a halt.
Sue Stevens of California City drew the winning ticket for a Cowboy Boot quilt donated by the Dam Quilters group.
Stevens drew the winning raffle ticket at Cheryl’s Diner, which displayed the quilt and sold tickets for the Kern River Historical Society while the museum was closed.
Proceeds from the raffle go to the museum, located at 49 Big Blue Road in Kernville.
The non-profit museum, run by the historical society, is free to the public. Visitors can expect to see artifacts dating from prehistoric times to the present.
Photo Courtesy of Kern Valley Museum Crews load the Vaughn School bell onto a truck for transport to its new home at the Kern Valley Museum.
By D. Beasley
For decades in the early 20th century, a bell summoned students to the tiny Vaughn School in Bodfish. In a sign of how rural Kern County was in those days, the school had 22 students, according to the Kernville Union School District, which acquired and closed Vaughn in 1950. The 380-pound bell had a second life at Highland Chapel Methodist Church, placed on a 15-foot stand in the 1950s. When the Highland Chapel property went up for sale after its merger with Kernville United Methodist Church, the house of worship donated the bell to the Kern Valley Museum in Kernville in November.