Photograph of Robbers Roost — Photograph by Pastordonn, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Bandit Rock

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1915.

From the record

“Robbers Roost is a rock formation in the foothills of the Scodie Mountains portion of the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in the North Mojave Desert. The formation overlooks the southern portion of the Indian Wells Valley.”
Wikipedia article Robbers Roost (Kern County, California), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 23 National Register listings published here for Kern County · listed in 1975 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site as contributing to the listing.
Address. SW of Inyokern near jct. of CA 14 and 178, Inyokern
When was it listed? October 1975
Category. site
Census division. Lake Isabella
National Register reference number. 75000431 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

13 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Bandit Rock between 1992 and 2020, burning about 917 acres in total. 4 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Natural	4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Recreation and ceremony	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
27 September 1992	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	California Desert District	FREEMAN
13 September 2000	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	California Desert District	PASS
6 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Desert District	WALKER
31 August 1998	Natural	under an acre	California Desert District	ROBBERS
30 July 2003	Natural	under an acre	California Desert District	JOSHURA
20 June 2010	Recreation and ceremony	14 acres	Sequoia National Forest	COW
19 June 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Desert District	PASS
16 June 2004	Natural	under an acre	Sequoia National Forest	KELSO

Every fire recorded in Kern County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Bandit Rock: 2 past producers, 2 prospects, 1 plant, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Tungsten, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Caltrans #178	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Long John	Silver, Zinc, Lead	Past Producer
Wilkerson No. 1 Prospect	Thorium	Prospect
El Mensaje	Gold	Plant
Kerntung Group	Tungsten	Occurrence	Scheelite
Kerntung Group	Tungsten	Prospect
Robbers Roost Mine	Gold	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Kern County

Storms near this property

6 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Inyokern, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1999 and 2017: 2 lightning, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Inyokern	$10,000	Nine trees were reported blown down in Inyokern from a thunderstorm downburst.
July 1999	Lightning	Inyokern	$5,000	Numerous lightning strikes in the vicinity of Inyokern and Ridgecrest. A pole fire resulted as early as 1430 PST from a lightning strike with another report as late as 1510 PST in Ridgecrest.
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Inyokern	$2,000	no account filed
July 2001	Flash Flood	Inyokern	-	Kern County Fire Department responded to a stranded car at the Buttermilk Acres crossing of Inyokern Road at 1840 PDT. Locally heavy rain had occurred in desert thunderstorm activity with 0.65" reported at Inyokern on the daily report.
June 2006	Lightning	Inyokern	-	no account filed
February 2001	Flood	Inyokern	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kern County

Maps showing this location

9 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1915 USGS Searles Lake quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1943 USGS Inyokern quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1947 USGS Trona quadrangle1:250000
1948 USGS Trona quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Trona quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Trona quadrangle1:250000 - 5 printings
1960 USGS Trona quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1972 USGS Freeman Junction quadrangle1:24000
1993 USGS Ridgecrest quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Walker Pass	6.6 miles	1966

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 75000431 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kern County	All 23 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.