The Tomahawk was a weekly newspaper published in Tehachapi, California, from about 1899 to June 6, 1919, when the name was changed to The Tehachapi News.
The Tomahawk was not the first newspaper published in Tehachapi, California, but the weekly began publishing around 1899, and publication continued through June 6, 1919, when new owners changed the name to The Tehachapi News. Today’s Tehachapi News continues this publication.
Not all editions of The Tomahawk are available, but a few from 1907 and most from 1912 through the final edition in 1919 are available at Newspapers.com. Over time, I will try to find other sources for the missing issues, but it is possible that they are lost forever.
The purpose of The Tomahawk Project is to index information from this early newspaper and make it readily available for researchers and other curious people. They say that newspapers print the first draft of history, and people with an interest in history — and specifically Tehachapi’s history — will find a rich trove of information here (once the project is complete).
I’ve set aside some time to work on this regularly, but it’s a laborious endeavor, so please remember that patience is a virtue. As I create posts from articles published in The Tomahawk, I’ll also be creating some indexes to help people find information once the work is complete.
— Claudia Elliott, Sept. 15, 2023
UPDATE — Yesterday, my friend Jon Hammond let me know that he has some of the bound copies of The Tomahawk that once resided at the Tehachapi News office but were going to be discarded. He rescued them, so it will also be possible to pull material from The Tomahawk for the years 1905, 1906 and 1905, as well as some later years. This is wonderful news! Jon also wrote about The Tomahawk in his Pen in Hand column in the Tehachapi News this week. You can read it HERE.
— Claudia Elliott, Nov. 28, 2023