Today is - Fri Mar 29 2024

North Area

Kern County Sheriff's Office

North Area Substation
181 East First
Buttonwillow, CA
(661) 764-5613
FAX (661) 764-5040

The North Area Substation (commonly known as the “Buttonwillow Substation”) began with a resident deputy working from his home. As with other resident deputies of the era (1930s), the deputy was on duty and subject to call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The deputy’s area was confined to the community of Buttonwillow and the farmland and oilfields immediately surrounding it. The migrant workers who filled the cotton camps during the picking season would swell the population by 5,000 people and gave the resident deputy plenty of work.

For many years, prisoners had to be driven into Bakersfield for booking at the main jail. In 1940, a two-cell jail was built at Mirasol and Second Streets in Buttonwillow. Since the jail had no office, the deputy still had to work from his home. The jail cells were designed to hold two or three prisoners each, but it was not unusual to have up to 20 prisoners over a weekend if a brawl broke out at a dance or one of the cotton camps. On Monday morning, the prisoners were taken to appear before the resident judge who held court in an office in the back of his grocery store.

In the early 1950s, a Sheriff's Substation was built in the county building next to the Buttonwillow Justice Court at Miller and First Streets. The station had two holding cells attached to it. In 1956, the area became a two-man station, serving a 300-square mile area. The station area did not yet extend to the western county border. The deputies were regularly assisted by a group of reserve deputies from the community. The station was the first station to have canines assigned outside of the Bakersfield area. In the late 1960s, use of the jail was discontinued due to state regulations requiring prisoner supervision. The service area was expanded to 504 square miles and a sergeant was added to the station in 1971.

Today, the North Area Substation provides law enforcement services to the residents and visitors of northwestern Kern County. This includes the communities of Buttonwillow, Lost Hills, Belridge, Blackwell’s Corner, Keck’s Corner, Spicer City, Devil’s Den, and the unincorporated areas around the cities of Shafter and Wasco. This area encompasses about 1500 square miles of farming, ranching, and oil industries.