BUTTONWILLOW, Calif. -- What's behind a name?

Kern County has 11 cities and 43 towns and their names all come from somewhere, but just one comes from a very specific tree.

Explorers, settlers, politicians and geographical features is how most towns get their names.

But for one town on the west side of the valley, it's something else and after all these years, and we're talking centuries, it's still there.

And while it may not look like much, or sound like much, the lone buttonwillow tree along Buttonwillow Drive is how Buttonwillow got its name back in 1895.

The tree has hundreds of twig like branches, which look starved for water. It's also covered with green moss and the remnants of spiders' silk webs. It also has plenty of scrapes, cuts and pruning scars from over the years.

The history of the Buttonwillow Tree, now and then, is as a landmark. Now, it is a state historic landmark, but back around 1895 or so, when Buttonwillow first officially became a town, it was a landmark for cowboys working for Miller and Lux, two notorious cattle barons.

The tree sits about a mile north of Highway 58, by itself on the edge of a field near a slough.

A field that in the late-1800s was probably filled with cattle owned by Miller and Lux, two San Francisco butchers turned meat packing conglomerates who dramatically impacted California and the west when it came to land and water rights, and even names.

And the two German immigrants each have a street named after them right along Highway 58 in Buttonwillow.

The tree was also a meeting place for Yokuts Indians long before settlers took over the valley.

And for you expert botanists out there, the Buttonwillow Tree technically isn't a willow or tree at all, it's actually what's called a button bush, though it can grow into a tree and looks like a willow, hence the name.

If you know of something interesting about Kern County we should explore e-mail Chris Van Horne at chris@turnto23.com.