According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10 square miles (26 km2) and a population of 14,414.

Now known as ‘Old Town’, it was located four miles west of present-day downtown Tehachapi and was an important station on the road linking the San Joaquin Valley with Southern California.

[15] In 1869, Peter D. Greene, a gold prospector and rancher who originally arrived in 1856, was appointed postmaster of a new post office near the Tomlinson Stage Company station at Oak Creek to be called ‘Tehichipa’, which was the only post office in the area.

[16] Under the leadership of civil engineer J.B. Harris, the Southern Pacific Railroad line through the Tehachapi Pass was completed in July 1876 and became the final link connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The depot is now on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)—and was the oldest building in downtown Tehachapi until it burned in June 2008.

[17] It has since been rebuilt using the original plans with only minor modifications to meet modern building codes.

Twelve people died in the quake and severe damage was done to buildings and rail lines in the area.

The 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake on the San Andreas Fault had an estimated magnitude of 7.9 but there is no record of the local effects of this quake.

[21] The wet season is generally November through May, although thunderstorms are common during the summer, especially over the nearby mountain peaks.

Many days out of the year experience strong wind gusts, usually coming from the Tehachapi Pass to the northwest.

[citation needed] Tehachapi has historically been agrarian, with apples, peaches, grain, vegetables and hay grown year-round.

A 2007 application to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) for the "Tehachapi/Cummings Valley AVA" was declined due to insufficient planted acreage.

The Tehachapi area has been a center for renewable wind energy, containing 4,531 turbines that produce 3,200 megawatts of electricity as of 2019.

In the same year, Amazon announced it would begin sourcing wind energy from Tehachapi as part of its goal to become carbon-neutral by 2040.

TMTA members are walkers, hikers, road bicyclists, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and outdoor enthusiasts interested in developing and preserving multi-use non motorized trails throughout the greater Tehachapi area.

[46] The Tehachapi Police Department has been dissolved and reformed several times throughout the city's history.

[52] Tehachapi Municipal Airport is located approximately one mile east of the Park and Ride facility.

Tehachapi has been host to productions by both Hollywood and independent filmmakers, as well as being frequently mentioned, particularly during the noir era.

[53] Perhaps the first movie to be filmed in Tehachapi was The Lady of the Dugout (1918), which starred former outlaws Al and Frank Jennings playing themselves.

"[53] In The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) tells a female criminal and love interest, "Well, if you get a good break, you'll be out of Tehachapi in twenty years and you can come back to me then."

[53] In 1001 Rabbit Tales, Bugs Bunny tells the sultan's son that Hansel and Gretel's witch was sent to Tehachapi.

[53] In Star Trek Generations (1994), actors Patrick Stewart and William Shatner appear in a scene filmed in the Tehachapi mountains.

[53] The fourth season of the teen-geared television series, Endurance produced by the Discovery Kids Network was filmed in Tehachapi and aired from 2005 to 2006.

Similarly, Terminal Velocity (1994) has a fight sequence filmed on top of a hill in one of the farms.

Tehachapi was featured in several episodes of the Animal Planet reality show Pit Bulls and Parolees.

(Identified Flying Object) (1985), Motor Mansions (2005), The Legend of Bloody Mary (2008), The Grapes of Wrath (1940, featuring the scene at Keene Ranch), and The Hangover Part III (2013).

The American singer Margo Cilker included a song called "Tehachapi" on her 2021 album Pohorylle.

In the 1999 PlayStation video game Parasite Eve II, it's main protagonist, Aya Brea, receives a map of Mojave region and is tasked to go to a fictional town of "Dryfield".

[55] Spokeswoman Pam Bierce said that as condors re-colonized historical ranges "people could increasingly find themselves interacting with the curious, intelligent and social birds".

[56] Mickols' daughter Seana Quintero stated that all-in-all her mother was in "good stride and appreciating this once-in-a-lifetime annoyance but hoping they decide to leave her house alone soon".