Spudding in: Recollections of Pioneer Days in the California Oil FieldsThe result is a descriptive, impressionistic, anecdotal and inevitably uneven history which focuses primarily on crude oil production and transportation during the first third of the twentieth century. The focus, determined by the interviews, is sound. Prior to 1900 the California oil industry was at an early stage of development. After the first great oil fields came into production at Kern River and Coalinga in the San Joaquin Valley and Santa Maria near the coast, California in 1903 became the nation’s leading oil state. Thereafter, for a quarter century California kept that leadership in most years until it was permanently superseded by Texas. Because of this early preeminence and the high quality of technical education in California universities, California oil men contributed disproportionately to the new technology of oil exploration and development which characterized these years. In the beginning “practical” oil men of limited or no formal training had controlled exploration and development; gradually, they were replaced by applied scientists trained in university departments of geology and petroleum engineering. The thirty-five interviewees who have buttressed this book with their memories include members of both groups. |
Contents
Life in the Valley Oil Towns | 62 |
Oil in the Streets of Los Angeles | 82 |
The Rotary Rig in California | 114 |
Copyright | |
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Angeles asphalt Associated Oil Baker Memorial Museum Bakersfield barrels a day became began block Blodget boilers boom cable tool California California oil fields Coalinga Coast Company of California crude oil Davis depth discovery drill bit drill pipe drillers drilling crew drilling rig Elliott Elwood engine feet flow fluid formation fuel gasoline geological geologist gusher hole horses Huntington Beach Karge Kern County Museum Kern River Kern River field Lakeview Lakeview gusher land later lease Los Angeles Manley McKittrick method miles natural gas Oil and Gas oil fields oil industry oil operators oil sand Pauson Petroleum photograph plant Pope-Hartford pulled pump R. C. Baker Memorial recalled Rio Bravo rotary drilling rotary rig rotary table San Francisco San Joaquin Valley Santa Fe Springs Shell Signal Hill Silver Tip Southern Pacific spudded Standard Oil station steam surface Taft tank took town Union Oil Company Ventura