Bakersfield's 22-Foot Missionary Statue at a Notoriously Dangerous Intersection
Garces Circle, Bakersfield, CA 93301
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public space
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalk around circle
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1939 · California State Historical Landmark No. 277 · New Deal Federal Art Project · Father Francisco Garces · Spanish Colonial Exploration History
Father Francisco Garces was a Franciscan missionary and explorer who crossed the Rio de San Felipe — today's Kern River — on May 7, 1776, at a location near what is now central Bakersfield. He was, by the documented record of European exploration, the first non-indigenous person to enter the Kern region. Garces was killed in 1781 at the Colorado River during the Yuma Massacre.
Garces Memorial Circle was established by the California Division of Highways in 1935 as a traffic management feature along U.S. Route 99, a major north-south corridor through California's Central Valley. Four years later, sculptor John Palo-Kangas — working under the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration — completed the monument. The central figure stands 16 feet 4 inches tall, carved from Indiana limestone and mounted on a Carnelian granite base, bringing the total height to over 22 feet. The monument was designated California State Historical Landmark No. 277.
The circle's location along a heavily trafficked route created ongoing congestion, leading to the construction of an overpass bridge in 1955 and the statue's relocation approximately 55 feet from its original position. When U.S. Route 99 became State Route 204 in 1964, the circle's traffic function diminished but its landmark status remained.
Sources
The folklore at Garces Circle works as a kind of crisis apparition story attached to a public monument rather than a person. The accounts are consistently structured around the same moment: a driver or pedestrian becomes aware, just before or during a serious accident at the circle, that something is different about the statue.
The hands, according to witnesses, appear to move. Not subtly — not the kind of perceived motion one might attribute to tricks of peripheral vision — but a repositioning, a gesture. Alongside this visual perception, witnesses have reported hearing what they describe as prayer: the murmur of a voice engaged in petition or intercession, attributed to the figure of Garces on the monument.
The Bakersfield Ghost Tour operated by US Ghost Adventures has incorporated Garces Circle into its itinerary, framing the statue as one of the city's oldest and most recognizable spectral presences. The tour notes that the spirit of Father Garces 'is no stranger to Bakersfield locals,' suggesting the circle has a sustained reputation among residents rather than a sudden or recent paranormal designation.
The theological coherence of the legend — a Catholic missionary interceding through prayer at an accident scene — gives it a cultural grounding that distinguishes it from more generalized hauntings. Whether or not the statue moves, the community has built a story around Garces that reflects his historical role as a figure associated with blessing and protection.
View the 22-foot limestone and granite statue of Father Francisco Garces, sculpted in 1939 by New Deal artist John Palo-Kangas and designated California State Historical Landmark No. 277. The statue stands at the center of the traffic circle at the intersection of several major Bakersfield streets, relocated slightly from its original 1939 position in 1955 to accommodate bridge construction.
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