Early Oil and Gas Production in California

I was the first woman to work in the oilfield. Hired in 1972. I remember seeing the oil "caves" up by Sulfur Mountain. I met Carl Breig. He lived up Piru/Temescal Canyon forever and took care of the field there.

As a Californian raised in the public school system, it's sad they didn't teach us about this.

Thank you for going to all this trouble to produce this production. It is very illuminating for someone with no similar experience. Appreciated.

The Californian landscape looks astonishingly similar to the Mediterranean. Greetings from Tunisia.

Lemme tell you story 'bout a man name Jed... Jokes aside, this was a great video. Back in the 1970's I used to hike way way back into the canyons up Sespe Creek north of Fillmore. I remember that there were (and probably still are?) the scattered remains of old oil industry activity like rusted pipes, tools, steel cables, tattered shacks and sheds, and the like located a seemingly impossibly distance up the canyon. There may have been old oil wells hidden in the thick chaparral but I sensed that most of paraphernalia i saw was most likely the remains of exploration and drilling sites that for one reason or another didn't pan out. There was evidence that a dirt road had wound back through there at one time but it was for all purposes long obliterated by the many Sespe floods and rockslides that engulf the canyon. I remember there was the buried, overgrown rusted hulk of the remains of an early 20th century automobile - something from the late 1910's it looked like - sticking out of the dirt. I always used it as a landmark on my hikes to tell me where I was, as there was only very scattered sections of trail to follow. The canyon at that point is clogged with boulders the size of cars and small houses. It was very difficult to fathom how a road could have been built back there, let alone all that equipment transported to such a remote location, but there it was. It was all pretty cool to wander through and imagine the workman and organization it must have taken to go into such a remote area. This wonderful video reminded me of that time and place in my life. Thank you.

back in the late 1950s and early 1960s Dad would give my brother and I rags so we could grab a hold of the Jack lines near Taft California for fun ... Dad was born in Taft ...

I been working in California oil fields for the pass 27 years .

That esentric pump is some smart engineering

Grewup in N. Long Beach in the shadow of Signal Hill in the 50's and 60's. Signal Hill was covered with those old wooden derricks. They were also along the ocast from Long Beach to Huntington Beach. Not mention the offshore rigs inside the breakwater off the coast of Long Beach.

Such a great way to show people from outside California the rich history we have in oil exploration

Those old wooden derricks make me think of "There Will Be Blood". Great film.

Very cool having grown up in Ventura Ca I remember hiking as a kid and coming upon oil seeping out of the ground. Didn’t realize it all started around here.

I loved that pump rig. great video

Love documentary's like this .What a relief to get away from all the lies on mainstream TV.

I wish had video recorded folks I knew in the 1980's still alive had been born in 1890's. I even had a video recorder I recorded stupid stuff like dirt bikes and surfing.

nice banjo soundtrack, nice video

No mention of the first producing oil well in California. That was up outside of Petrolia CA in 1865. Humboldt County.

Last I looked it up. California is approx 3.5% of the national production today. Some may call it a green state. But still a slick deal. It's a trip seeing Jack's running in LA area.

Great presentation!

11:00 Had a family friend who worked for Union Oil. They made most of their own tools.