The herald., 1896-09-27
Oil Wells Midst Roses and Or.
ange Bowers
A GREAT LOCAL INDUSTRY
Hundreds of Productive Wells Within
the City Limits
Wonderful Impetus Given Local Manu-.
factures by Cheap Fuel-The Oil
Fields Being Extended.

The production Of petroleum, which
not many years ago was confined to
Pennsylvania and a few other adjacent
states, is no longer peculiar to the re-
gions east of the Mississippi river. In
various parts of the west oil fields have
been discovered, but none more import
ant than those of Southern California.
Nature has done much for this favor
ed region, far more than the early set
tiers anticipated. Not only have the
people who have located here found the
finest climate in the world, the most
| productive SOIL and mountains rich in
the precious metals and other valuable
| minerals: they have discovered also
that the very ground they walk upon is
underlaid with oleaginous deposits, so
near the surface in places that the green,
rich, crude petroleum oozes from the
earth.
These oil springs as the are called.
were known to the early settlers and
they made various uses of the fluid
| which they could procure in consi1era-
| BILE quantities without digging or bor-
| ing into the earth. Little did they
dream, though, that at no far distant
day the production of petroleum almost
in the very heart of the city of Los An
| geles would be an important industry
an industry, in fact that has given birth
| to many new Industries and in a few
years revolutionized several important
lines of business.
1t is only about five years since own
ers. of land in the vicinity of Second
| street park, in the hill district of Los
Angeles, began boring shallow wells
where oil oozed from the ground. Seep-
| age oil would collect in these holes and
be pumped or bailed out, each we'll yield
ing several barrels of very good fuel oil
per day, for which producers found a
ready market at very good prices. This
encouraged other property holders in
the vicinity to bore for oil, and gradu-
ally the wells were driven deeper and
| deeper, and the deeper they went the
better were the results. 1t was ulti-
mately discovered that there are two
chler Oil bearing strata, the first at a
depth OF about 750 feet, the second at
900 to HOO. Very few wells in the dis
trict are more than 1000 feet deep, as
a strong vein of salt water is generally
encountered below that depth that Oft
times floods the wells and 'drowns out''
the oil.
:, The number of wells within the city
limits of Los Angeles now exceeds 400.
Where they are closely crowded togeth-
er some of the older wells have been
worn out, but new one is started for
every one that goes dry. The yield
ranges all the way from one to $50 bar
rels per day, though the latter is ex-
ceptlonal and is not maintained long
under continuous pumping. The very
pest wells do not average over fifty bar
rels per day, and the general ayera ge
Is probably less than ten barrels.
Ine quality of the oil varies greatly
IN different parts of the field, but it is
| al! good for fuel, lubricating or some
l 1,a,
base and is not well adapted for refining.
except for asphalts and several kinds of
dlstlIlates which make a fine substitute
Tor gasoline. 1t contains a very small
per cent of parafine or kerosene.
1t is as fuel that the Los Angeles
Oil is most valuable. AS a substitute for
coal as steam producer it has COM
pletely revolutionized manufacturing in
| Los Angeles. On account of the high
price of coal and coke, many forms of
! manufacturing could not thrive in Los
Angeles before the advent of OIL
Oil being so much cheaper and more
convenient, it has been substituted for
coal under practically every boiler in
the city. Many new enterprises have
sprung up as the result of this cheap
ening of steam power. All the iron
works, mills of various sorts, cable and
electric power plants, brick kilns, etc.,
| use Oil for fuel now, thereby saving
thousands of dollars that would other
wise form part of their operating ex-
penses. The Southern California rail-
way company alone, by using Oil in
its locomotives, saves quarter of a mil
| lion dollars q year, it is estimated The
Terminal railway also uses oil on all
its locomotives and the Southern Pa
| cific is changing many of it's engines
| from coal to oil burners.
Soon after the oil industry got fairly
started, production exceeded the de-
mand and prices fell from $1.50 to 30
cents a. barrel. Consumption, however,
increased. rapidly, better storage ia
cilities were provided and export trade
began, under all of which influences
the price again rose and now ranges
| from $100 to $1.25 per barrel, which still
makes it cheap fuel and gives the pro-
| ducer profit. For the last three months
| the price has almost been stationary,
| and production has not more than salts
fled the local demand. The field Is
gradually being extended and proba-
bilities are that'the production of petro-
| leum will continue to be leading in
| dustry in Los Angeles.
| Thogh it is now hardly more than two
years since oil was first made use of for
commercial purposes in this district, the
| field now presents much the same as
| pect as may be looked upon in the older
and long-worked regions of Pennsylva-
MIA and Ohio. The methods now in use
| are substantially the same as one en-
| counters there, and their general ap-
| pearance of thrift and activity are their
exact counterpart. The plan of utilizing
the isolated plant system has been to
great extent abolished for the more
economical system Of pumping jacks.
| By the latter method a series of wells
| within wide area are actuated from a
central station and by the use of a great
| ly reduced force Of men. In some cases
the item of fuel cost has been entirely
wiped out by the utilization of natural
gas from one well which flows in suffi-
cient quantity to supply twenty-horse
power gas engine. The economic man
agement of the industry has still further
been accomplished by the introduction
of the piping system as means of tracS-
portation, in many cases. The latter
plan has been adopted by large firms
having storage tanks adjacent to the
railway stations. or located within the
manufacturing districts
The limits of the oil district now being
operated are comprehended by an area
extending about one mile east and west
and one-fourth of that distance from
north to south. The field is located in
the heart of what was recently one of
the most highly improved residence dis
tricts of the city, and is therefore now
dotted over with pretentious residence
structures. Within it one may see huge
oil-stsSned derricks rising in back yards
and alleys, by the side of the handsome
porches and upon lawns in front of resi-
dences. Running riot throughout the
6a1d ara 5aaply SpIIttara5 fr1Iplr rna1c