Case Solved: Bakersfield Sign Recovered In Tuolumne County

Jamestown, CA — An iconic sign from a Bakersfield bar and music venue has been located and returned back to Kern County.

Trout’s Bar opened in 1945 and the facility was unfortunately destroyed by fire in 2022. The neon sign outside, however, had been missing since 2017 when it was removed for repairs by the then-manager, Thomas Rockwell, who has ties to Tuolumne County.

Recently the Kern County Museum was given ownership of the missing sign. We reported earlier that the museum’s director is Mike McCoy, former Sonora High Superintendent of Schools.

Thanks to a donation, a private investigator, Paul Lopez, was hired to tenaciously search for it.

He received a tip that it was at a home in Jamestown, about a quarter of a mile from Railtown 1897.

The call came in last Wednesday from a man, who asked to remain anonymous, who was storing the sign for Rockwell. He didn’t know that it was stolen property and was very helpful in the museum’s efforts to recover it.

The following day, Thursday, McCoy, along with his Maintenance Director Eddie Valdez, brought a moving truck to Jamestown to get it. They were helped out by some of McCoy’s old acquaintances, Chet White, Marc Christie, and Bob Grimm.

McCoy says they used a tractor to load it up and then they all went over and had a celebratory drink at the nearby Rawhide Saloon.

McCoy says Trout’s bar had a major following and was one of the last Bakersfield Honkey Tonks made famous by Merle Haggard and Buck Owens.

It has now been safely delivered to Bakersfield.