National Cemetery Administration

Visitation Hours: Open daily from sunrise to sunset.

Office Hours: Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed federal holidays.

This cemetery has space available to accommodate casketed and cremated remains.

Burial in a national cemetery is open to all members of the armed forces who have met a minimum active duty service requirement and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.

A Veteran's spouse, widow or widower, minor dependent children, and under certain conditions, unmarried adult children with disabilities may also be eligible for burial. Eligible spouses and children may be buried even if they predecease the Veteran.

Members of the reserve components of the armed forces who die while on active duty or who die while on training duty, or were eligible for retired pay, may also be eligible for burial.

» Eligibility for Burial in a VA National Cemetery

Fax all discharge documentation to the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 1-866-900-6417 and follow-up with a phone call to 1-800-535-1117.

For information on scheduled burials in our national cemeteries, please go to the Daily Burial Schedule.

The 500-acre national cemetery near Bakersfield, CA will serve veterans' needs well into the next century. It is located about 25 miles east of SR 99 near Arvin along SR 223 in Kern County.

In July 2009, VA opened a 20-acre early burial area with temporary facilities (Phase 1A) followed by the completion of a second construction stage of the project (Phase 1B) in May 2011. The 50-acre Phase 1 development will provide approximately 4,800 full-casket gravesites, 4,000 pre-placed crypts, 4,000 in-ground cremation sites, 3,000 columbarium niches, an ossuary and Memorial Wall. Phase 1 consists of roadways, an entrance area, an administration and public information center, a maintenance complex, a flag assembly area, a committal service shelter, as well as interment areas.

For educational materials and additional information on this cemetery, please visit the Education section, located below.

Fresh cut flowers can be placed on gravesites year-round. Once the flowers become unsightly, we will remove them. In addition, to facilitate a thorough cleaning of the burial sections, we will remove and dispose of all items placed on gravesites on the first and third Tuesday of each month (exception winter holiday season). Temporary plastic flower vases are available in the designated bins.

Artificial flowers and potted plants are allowed only on graves for a period extending five days before through five days after Easter Sunday and Memorial Day.

Seasonal Holiday Adornments for Christmas and Hanukkah, etc., such as wreaths, poinsettias, and small floral grave blankets, may be placed on graves from the third Saturday in December (National Wreaths Across America Day) through the third Monday in January (Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Arrangements cannot be more than 24" high or long.

To preserve the dignity of the cemetery, balloons, pinwheels, lights, candles, statues, stuffed animals, breakable items, etc. are not permitted. Bakersfield National Cemetery assumes no responsibility for items left on gravesites.

No item or object may be attached to the headstone or niche cover. Headstones and niche covers are federal property, altering or marking by paint, marker, lipstick or any other means is prohibited.

Bakersfield National Cemetery assumes no responsibility for items left on gravesites. Due to the open nature of the grounds, we cannot guarantee against theft, vandalism or the effects of nature.

We thank you in advance for providing the respect our Veterans are due, by observing the above listed regulations. Our Nation's heroes, some of whom gave their lives for this country, deserve no less than an honorable and pristine landscape to make their final rest.

Set in a beautiful, natural landscape, Bakersfield National Cemetery in the White Wolf area of the Tehachapi Mountains is nestled amidst wide-open stretches, mountain vistas and rolling grazing land where both cattle and camels once roamed. Dating to the days of the land grants when California was still part of Mexico, the land has hosted vaqueros and cowboys, as well as the short-lived U.S. Army Camel Corps that was based in nearby Fort Tejon from 1857 to 1863.

The cemetery land was originally part of a Mexican grant that dates to November 24, 1843, when Mexican Governor Manuel Micheltorena gave the land to the original owners, Jose Antonio Aguirre and Ignacio del Valle. They called the property Rancho el Tejon.

In the 1850s and 1860s, General Edward Fitzgerald Beale, hero of the Battle of San Pasqual and former superintendent of Indian affairs and surveyor-general of California, purchased Rancho el Tejon and three other land grants and assembled them into what he called the Ranchos el Tejon, now known simply as Tejon Ranch. Rancho el Tejon was the largest of the four land grants. The White Wolf area, where the cemetery is located, was historically used for grazing and that practice continues today. It was so named because of the packs of white wolves that roamed the area. The vaqueros reported seeing them as late as 1875.

Through the National Cemetery Expansion Act of 2003, Congress authorized the addition of six new national cemeteries, including one in the Bakersfield area. The Tejon Ranch Company, which owns the largest contiguous tract of private property in California—between Los Angeles and Bakersfield—quickly offered to donate land for use as a cemetery. It offered a choice of several locations in the White Wolf area and the National Cemetery Administration chose the 500-acre site located just south of Highway 58 and west of Highway 223. The cemetery is surrounded by the 422-square-mile Tejon Ranch.

The final transfer of land took place in 2008. The first interment of cremated remains occurred on July 1, 2009, and the first casketed interment the following day.