So, in response to Kathy’s post on the forum, about the school bus, I did some research and discovered that there is really nothing well known about the buss’ history, and how it came to be abandoned on the side of highway 178.
When traveling on Highway 178 towards Walker’s Pass from the Kern River Valley area, 
any by passer with a keen eye for detail will notice that right outside of Canebrake, along the road lies a school bus half eaten by the earth.
There are many rumors, speculations, even tall tales about how the bus came to be there, but no solid, proven, or even facts about it. The truth is, no one knows. Everybody pretty much has their own theory on it. Everything from military personnel breaking down there, to it just being abandoned there from the previous owners of Bloomfield Ranch.
The bus has caught many people’s attention (and curiosity), both paranormal researchers and not. Could it be that this bus has a significant historical value? Does it have some kind of rich story that leads to it’s ending there? Or if you’re a fellow ghost hunter, than you’re only question would be, is it haunted?
If I were to tally up all the stories to determine the most likely cause of the mystery bus breakdown, I would then have to let you down by saying, no, no one died in that bus. That bus has no historical value, and no, the bus is not haunted. It’s just a big creepy hunk of metal that sparks the inner workings of the mind. But that’s just me. Different people have their say on the matter.
“My dad always told me it belonged to Col. Walker.” Patrick Bizon said in a post about <a href=”http://www.high-desert-memories.com/walkpass.html”>Walkers Pass.</a> He continued on saying, “He said Walker used it to transport troops over the pass. His troops enjoyed the trip so much, they named the pass after him. It got stuck in the mud one day and he and his troops decided it was less work to walk, then it would be to dig it out. Since they were all Cavalry, they figured it was time to learn how to ride a horse anyway. After they leared how to ride horses, they enjoyed it so much, the bus was long forgotten.
I almost forgot the rest of the story. The troups would stop a few miles up the road for lunch. They always B-B-Q'ed and the cook would cook the steaks well done. That name stuck and the place is now called Weldon. Now I know the pass is called Walker Pass, and there is a place on the way to the lake called Weldon, but somehow I think, my dad was pulling my leg.”
As entertaining as Patrick’s reminisce of his father’s story is, I’d have to say he’s right about his dad pulling his leg. Something tells me that in Colonel Walkers day, there were no school buses. But hey, who knows?
Anthony Jaime added in with a post consisting of a more likelier result of the buss’ history. “While there are many interesting conjectures concerning the school bus that is off road in the thicket of brush just past Canebrake and right before you get to the turn off to what used to be Bloomfield Ranch, the actual answer is somewhat less spectacular than the many stories I have heard over the years. In 1966, both forks of the Kern River produced an terrible flood in the Kern River Valley and the bus was deposited there as a result of flood waters. That is also the same year that the Kernville bridge was washed out and destroyed as a result of the flood waters. That flood in 1966 caused an enormous amount of devastation in the Kern River Valley. Many of the local taverns, historical sites and the local museum there still display pictures of the flood's aftermath. My grandfather took me for a drive up there about a week after the flood and I remember seeing the bus out there and how awful it looked in downtown Kernville with the bridge washed out.”
And Anthony’s not the only person to report their theory of the flood washing the bus away. A few other people that posted their stories of the bus online also blamed it on the flood of ‘66.
We may never know the truth about what happened to that bus. The mystery may never be solved. But, all mysterys leave an open playground for ghost hunters, their tuition, and their imagination. May the hauntings bring many new lights surrounding this somewhat dark tale of the bus with no past.
~MIkel
