Early Settlements in The Tehachapi Area

Early Settlements in The Tehachapi Area. Oak Creek, Williamsburg, Greenwich, Tehachapi. Green Street was named for Peter D. Greene, who came to the Tehachapi Area in 1856, when he set up camp in Mormon Gulch near Tehachapi where he prospected for gold (named after a company of Mormons who had previously prospected for gold there.) He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1860s but returned to the area in 1864 to continue mining. He was also involved in stock raising and based his operations at Oak Creek where a Tomlinson Stage Company's station had existed for a number of years., In 1868 Greene applied for a post office to be located at Oak Creek Stage Station, to be called "Tehichipa," and was appointed its postmaster when approved in 1869. This was the only post office in the entire Tehachapi area at that time. In 1875 Greene had founded the community Greenwich, three miles east of Williamsburg. The Tehichipa post office was moved to Williamsburg in 1877 but was discontinued in 1885 when Greene moved his Greenwich post office to the new population center of the railroad town known as Tehachapi Summit, named as such when the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in the Tehachapi Valley in July 1876. The tracks had bypassed Greenwich and instead built its depot one mile east. The postal name was changed to "Tehachpi" in 1893., The original town of Williamsburg, also called Tehichipa, was likewise by-passed by the railroad and many residents literally moved their houses and business to the new town, just like those of Greenwich., A newspaper reported, "a healthy condition of progress was made by 1888 at the new town site of Tehachapi Summit. Judge Greene noted that the area he had seen grown from a wilderness had become one of the most prosperous sections of the state. Its exports largely exceed its imports and as consequence the people are becoming exceedingly prosperous.