Bakersfield.com

Gold Rush Days will be held Friday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Sept. 13, in Mojave, beginning with a free Skate Party from 5 to 7 p.m. at Mojave Park. Sponsored by the Mojave Four Square Church, free sno-cones and refreshments will be provided.
Saturday morning the Gold Rush Parade will form beginning at 9 a.m. at the corner of Belshaw and K Street and the parade will proceed South on K Street at 10 a.m. with Bill & Billye Deaver serving as Grand Marshals.
All community organizations, churches, veteran groups, equestrian entries, community queens, businesses and individuals of all ages are encouraged to participate in the parade. Trophies for first and second place will be awarded in the park at 1 p.m. Call 661.816.3497 for parade application. All Gold Rush applications are available at the Mojave Desert Bank.
Food and merchandise booths will be located in the park and an Art & Photography Show will be positioned in the Vet's Building. Call 661.824.2481 for an application for your business in the park or for entry form for Art Show, space is limited.
A special attraction to celebrate the 132nd anniversary of Southern Pacific founding Mojave will be an appearance by the 7 1⁄2 gauge Kern County Live Steamers outdoor railroad. Rides will be available for the public.
Mojave Elks will host a dance featuring the music of the Honky Tonk Truckers at the lodge beginning at 8 p.m.
The dance will be preceded by a TriTip barbecue from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Charge for the dance is $3 per person or $5 per couple. The barbecue is $8 per person.

Who are the grand marshals?
Long-time Mojave residents Bill and Billye Deaver are the grand marshals of the 2008 Mojave Gold Rush Days parade.
The Deavers came to Mojave — separately — in 1948, Bill with his parents and Billye with her sister, whose husband was in the Air Force at Edwards.
During those early years, Billye lived in one of the Quonset Huts that provided housing for local military personnel at the Mojave Marine Corps Air Station.
“When the wind blew, we had to clean the dirt off the beds, the roofs leaked so badly,” Billye recalls. She worked for many years at Reno’s Restaurant and for the Bank of America and Mojave Desert Bank, and helped run the Mojave Desert News in the early 1980s.
Married in 1961 in San Jose, the couple have been active in the community over the years — including the 12 years they spent in Washington,. D.C., from 1982 to 1994, where they both worked for Members of Congress representing California.
“We kept on eye on issues affecting Mojave,” Bill Deaver recalls.
While in the nation’s capitol, Bill served as a political appointee in the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, at the Federal Railroad Administration, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Treasury Dept.
Billye served on the staffs of Congressmen Norm Shumway and David Dreier, while Bill was administrative assistant to Congressman Chip Pashayan.
In Mojave, Bill served as constable, public safety communications dispatcher, court administrator and, with Billye, published this newspaper from 1979 to 1982. He is currently editor and publisher of the paper.
He is president of the Mojave Community Medical Center, Kern Transportation Foundation, and Edwards Community Alliance, and serves on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce and Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation.
“Everywhere we have gone around the U.S. and in Europe, we have found people who know about Mojave and the exciting things that happen here,” the Deavers say. “That — and the great people we work with throughout this region — is the reason we continue to make Mojave our home.”