Keene (formerly, Wells)[4] is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California in the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains at the southern extreme of the San Joaquin Valley.

Keene is located 8.5 miles (14 km) northwest of Tehachapi,[4] at an elevation of 2,602 feet (793 m).

The headquarters of the United Farm Workers (UFW), a national farmworkers organization organized and led by Cesar Chavez, is located in Keene, and is sometimes referred to as "Nuestra Señora Reina de La Paz" ("Our Lady Queen of Peace").

[2] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 9.7 square miles (25 km2), over 99% of it land.

A small community, Woodford, of about 30 buildings once existed about 1 mile southeast of Keene.

The walls of his United Farm Workers office in Keene were lined with hundreds of books ranging in subject from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies of Gandhi, the Kennedys, and Che Guevara.

It currently consists of a visitor center, memorial garden and the grave site of the civil rights leader.

When it is fully completed, the 187-acre (0.76 km2) site will include a museum and conference center to explore and share Chávez's work.

[7] A two-acre parcel of the site was designated as César E. Chávez National Monument on October 8, 2012.

There were 225 housing units at an average density of 23.3 per square mile (9.0/km2), of which 157 (84.4%) were owner-occupied, and 29 (15.6%) were occupied by renters.