The White Wolf fault, located north of the Big Bend segment of the San Andreas fault, is the NE-SW trending, left lateral-oblique reverse fault responsible for the Ms=7.8 1952 Kern County earthquake. We combined Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements with historical triangulation and trilateration data to determine changes in the strain rate over 7 decades (1926--1993). We reanalyzed the historical geodetic data and calculated an elevated preseismic (1926--1952) maximum shear strain rate (&ggr;˙) of 0.62¿0.16 μstrain/yr across the White Wolf fault. The maximum shear strain rate decreased with distance toward the Garlock fault to 0.09¿0.08 μstrain/yr. In the decade following the earthquake (1952--1963), the near fault &ggr;˙ was high (0.85¿0.23 μstrain/yr), and decreased to 0.23¿0.13 μstrain/yr across the Garlock fault. In 1993, we resurveyed many of the same monuments with GPS receivers to estimate fault-crossing and off-fault strain rates for the preceding 30 years. Across the White Wolf fault, the maximum shear strain rate (&ggr;˙) dropped to 0.19¿0.07 μstrain/yr. The azimuths of the maximum principal strain rates (ϕ) for the 1963--1993 epoch rotate from a fault normal orientation (-57¿¿15¿) across the White Wolf fault to 11¿¿3 ¿E across the Garlock fault.¿ 1997 American Geophysical Union