Los Angeles herald., 1905-09-17
OIL, LONG EXPECTED HERE,
WAS LATE IN DISCOVERY
Told of Thirty Years AgoLoca Oil Field Development Not
Due to AngelenOs at All-Great Thing for the City.
Minerals Abound in the Great Southwest
Written for The Herald by Col. Joseph D. lynch

III one of his recent letters to that
paper, gives as one of the causes of
the rapid growth of Los Angeles the
cheap fuel furnished our manufacture
ers by the discovery of petroleum de-
posits In this city, in the county Of
Los Angeles and the neighboring coun-
ties. This Is true, and the wonder is
That the discovery and development of
our oil measures did not take place at
an earlier date.
Ih1rty years ago a distinguished
geologist delivered a lecture in this
city in which he made the prediction
that petroleum would be found all
over the Pacific coast, from Alaska to
Patagonia. The discovery of extern
sive Oil deposits in Peru confirms one
portion of his theory, that toward the
south and the extended stretch of ter
rftory profitably worked in California
Indicates that this savant was not far
wrong in his provision.
Singularly enough, the development
Of the oil measures Of Los Angeles
was, in its inception at least, in no
sense due to the enterprise of Ange-
lenos. About thirty years ago the in
dications of promising oil territory out
III the Pico canyon, near Newhall, be-
came so striking that they attracted
the attention of San Francisco capt.
talists. Also, strange to say, our own
rich men remained insensible to the
opportunities for wealth which existed
in our own oil measures. They were
far more sensible to the chances of
getting rich through the operations of
the cent per cent, which were SO re-
munerative in those days, or to the
strenuous cultivation Of the tender
foot who then began to come into evil
dence, than they were drawn to the
exploitation of the resources of our pc
troleum deposits.
The development of Pico canyon
which lies about twenty-eight miles
from this city, on the line of the South
ern Pacific railway and three or four
mountains, was first undertaken by
ex-Mayor Bryant of San Francisco.
knew Mr.. Bryant very well and re-
member a conversation had with him
when he first undertook the enterprise.
He told me that before he went to
work and invested his money in devel-
oping the oil he thought 1t a good
thing to come down to Los Angeles
and talk it over with some of our lead
ing business men. Almost the first
ernor Downey, an old acquaintance,
with whom he had been intimately
associated in politics, and who at that
time was president of the Farmers and
Merchants bank.
Downey advised him to have nothing
to do with the attempt to develop oil
III the canyon and assured him that he
would lose any money he might invest
there He found nobody about Los
Angeles who gave him the slightest
encouragement in the project, but he
persevered, and these remarkable Pico
canyon wells began their long and sue
cessful career. They were the genesis
of all the oil development in California.
Years after the time of which speak
this enterprising San Franciscan COM
mitted suicide by jumping off an Oak
land ferry boat into the bay.
The Pico canyon property passed
from the hands of Mayor Bryant into
those of Senator Charles N. FELTON,,
D. G.. Schofeld and their associates,
who developed many wells there, some
OF which have yielded steadily during
the past quarter Of century. In their
prolonged, profitable and continuous
yield they have been unique in the his
tory of oil development. Some diff
culties as to transportation of their oil
having arisen between these gentle-
men and the Southern Pacific railway,
a pipe line was built over the hills to
the Ventura water front and the oil
was conveyed by their tank steamer,
George Loomis, to San Francisco with
marked profit. After a while the
Standard Oil company bought out the
F'elton-schofield interests, D. G. Scho-
field taking a responsible position in
the company's offices in the Rialto
building in San Francisco.
1t has been notable thing in the
history of Los Angeles since the place
has come much under the notice of the
world that something always occurs
to pull her up from any little tempo
rary Slough of Despond into which she
may have fallen. The town was hit
hard by the "Object Lesson Panic of
1893" which was followed by the strike
funfarronade of 1894, 1t was about this
time that the great local development
began hereabouts, which left our city
with such forest of derricks on
some of our most slightly eminences.
AS have said elsewhere, it is
strange that this development was de-
layed so long. Nearly forty years ago
Prudent Beaudry started to dig well
for water on his property out on the
hills back of the city, and at a depth
OF several hundred feet came on de-