If one had somehow awoken from a deep sleep on May 22 at the Kern County Museum, it would have seemed like they had been transported back to a time when the frontier was untamed and everything seemed to be cooked in a pot over a camp fire. Once a year the museum invites visitors to relive the Old West in what can be described as a day in the life of those who settled the frontier — the cowboys. Known as the Western Heritage Festival, the museum became home to dozens of 21st Century cowboys who still carry on the traditions of their counterparts from the 1800s. More