Arvin is a city in Kern County, California. Take a look below for 20 fascinating and amazing facts about Arvin, California, United States.

1. Arvin is located 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of 449 feet (137 m).

2. As of the 2010 census, the population was 19,304, up from 12,956 at the 2000 census.

3. In 2007, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) listed Arvin as having the highest levels of smog of any community in the United States.

4. The city’s level of ozone, smog’s primary component, exceeded the EPA’s acceptable limits on an average of 73 days per year between 2004 and 2006.

5. Wired telephone numbers in Arvin follow the format (661) 854-xxxx or (661) 855-xxxx and the ZIP Code is 93203.

6. Property sales of lots in present-day Arvin began in 1906. The Arvin Post Office was established in 1914 and the community incorporated as a city in 1960.

7. The city was named after Arvin Richardson, who was the son of one of the original settling families from San Bernardino.

8. Birdie Heard petitioned for the addition of the post office in 1914 and submitted proposed names, including Bear Mountain, Walnut, and Arvin. Officials in Washington, D.C., chose Arvin as it was the only proposed name which was not already in use in California.

9. Birdie was the city’s first postmaster. She initially set up the post office in her living room, but it was later moved to the general store owned by the Staples family.

10. The in-store post office was also the area’s first informal library until an official branch of the Kern County Library system was established in 1927.

11. Pedro Subia, a Mexican striker in the California agricultural strikes of 1933, was murdered at a strike in Arvin.

12. The Mountain View Oil Field, which underlies the town and much of the surrounding area, was discovered in 1933 and developed extensively in the 1930s.

13. Many oil wells still surround the town; some are slant-drilled to reach formations directly underneath inhabited areas.

14. In the 1930s and 1940s the area east of Arvin became popular for recreational gliding and soaring, and the hillsides of the Tejon Ranch were used annually for a Western Soaring Championship in the spring.

15. These significant events were later memorialized as a National Landmark of Soaring by the National Soaring Museum in 2000.

16. The Arvin Tiller started publication in 1939 and Arvin High School was built in 1949. The city was nearly destroyed on July 21, 1952, during the M7.3 Kern County earthquake (a rupture of the White Wolf Fault). Arvin suffered further damage on December 20, 1977, when a dust storm hit the area.

17. The Arvin Migratory Labor Camp was the first federally operated farm labor camp opened by the Farm Security Administration in 1937, one of many New Deal programs created during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt to respond to the Great Depression.

18. This agricultural camp was considered a model, and was built by the Resettlement Administration.

19. The city of Arvin is served by the Arvin Union School District and the Kern High School District. Other nearby districts include Di Giorgio School District, Vineland School District, and the Lamont School District.

20. The Arvin Union School District consists of Sierra Vista Elementary School, Bear Mountain Elementary School, El Camino Real Elementary School, Haven Drive Middle School, and Arvin State Preschool. The land for the Haven Drive campus was acquired in 1943. Sierra Vista and Haven Drive are the two oldest schools in Arvin. The district serves preschool to eighth grade students. The Arvin Union School District also serves the community with the Arvin Family Resource Center.