They arrived in Wasco on 6 Feb 1907 after a 10-day wagon trip from Gardena, with 4 horses and 2 wagons. They got to Saugus, were told the road was impassible, detoured to Lancaster and then back to Gorman, reached the Grapevine to descend toward Bakersfield and found that the valley was flooded. A newspaper article based on Chella's recollections states that the family came "to Wasco in 1907 as a part of the Fourth Home Extension Colony founded by Marshal V. Hartranft of Los Angeles. Mrs. McCombs recalls that in all nine sections of the colony, there were only two trees. The few tents and cabins dotting the sagebrush covered colony were no obstruction to the long view. There was no air conditioning, no ice, no shade, not even water unless it was hauled from a well. Chella and her brother, Don Bennett, joined about 18 other pupils in a one-room school facing the railroad south of what is now Seventh Street."