Born in 1855 in Vienna, Joseph Weringer, Sr. established the Weringer Brewery and Bowling Alley in Bakersfield in 1881. In 1889 he moved here and established the original townsite of Woody, named after pioneer rancher Sparrel Woody. Renamed Weringdale in 1891, the name reverted to Woody after several years. Weringer discovered copper here in 1891 and operated the Greenback copper mine until after World War I, when ore shipping costs to Arizona and drops in copper prices made the mine uneconomic. At one time, the mine employed over one hundred men. This building was part of the nine-room Weringer Hotel (1899) and Dance Hall. Woody also boasted a blacksmith shop, a modern garage, and a post office. The original Woody General Store is now located in the Kern Co. Museum Pioneer Village. An agricultural center, there were local citrus and fig orchards, ranching, a cold storage plant and a Fairbanks-Morse livestock scale.