Upon Spanish arrival in 1776, present-day Bakersfield was inhabited by the Yowlumne, a Yokuts people who lived in lodges along the branches of the Kern River delta and hunted antelope, tule elk, deer, bear, fish, and game birds.

The Bakersfield area, once a tule reed-covered marshland, was first known as Kern Island to the handful of pioneers who built log cabins there in 1860. The area was subject to periodic flooding from the Kern River, which occupied what is now the downtown area.

Hand sanitizer was first created in Bakersfield, California, by a young Latina nursing student named Lupe Hernandez, who came up with the idea to replace soap and water around 1966 in an attempt to speed up work in hospitals.

The city gained fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the Bakersfield Sound, an electric guitar-driven subgenre of country music that commercially dominated the industry for more than a decade. Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakam, and Merle Haggard were its best-known stars.

The Great Bakersfield Dust Storm of 1977 started in the late evening on December 19. By the next morning, the wind was blowing so hard that it sounded like a loud roar, and enough dust was in the air that it blocked out the sun. Roads into and out of the southern valley were closed. Wind was measured at 192 miles per hour (309 km/h). Over 25 million cubic feet of topsoil from grazing land alone was moved. Freeways were buried. The storm finally subsided on December 21, but it had resulted in 5 deaths and $40 million in damages.

Grimmway Farms is the largest grower, producer, and shipper of carrots in the world, handling 10 million pounds of carrots a day. It is headquartered in Bakersfield, California, and has been family owned and operated for more than 40 years. The company has been recognized for popularizing the baby carrot.

Over the years, the Padre Hotel has earned the reputation of being one of Bakersfield's most haunted places. The majority of the paranormal activity seems to be centered on the seventh floor, where guests have reported being pushed by unseen hands. One of the most commonly spotted apparitions is the ghost of a young girl dressed in 1930s clothing. She is known to giggle a great deal and often leaves small child-sized handprints on mirrors and doors.

The median age of Bakersfield's population is 30.2, giving it a younger population than either California (35.6) or the U.S. (37.4).

It is one of just two professional ballparks in the United States where the batter faces west, and as such, faces directly into the setting sun (the other being Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, Massachusetts). As a result, the Bakersfield Train Robbers start most of their games late. From mid-June to mid-August, it's not unusual for games to begin as late as 7:58 PM.

Founded in Bakersfield in 1993, Korn is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream.