If the town had not been named after Col. Thomas Baker, Bakersfield residents might well have had to endure an uncomplimentary nickname instead. According to Kern County Museum docent Dale Hopwood, Spanish settlers once referred to the whole valley as Los Tules, words borrowed from native Americans then reworked to describe the marshy reeds that grew everywhere at the time. Approximately 400 fourth-graders who visited the museum on Oct. 13 for California History Day, learned that piece of local lore and a lot more about Kern County. It seems being The Tules was a little bit good and a little bit bad. On the one hand everything was swampy, and according to Hopwood, good raw materials for building houses did not thrive in that environment. It was mostly reeds and cottonwood trees, and the trees were not sturdy enough for framing. So, the inventive settlers plastered the branches together with swampy mud for the walls and used reeds to make the roof. More